The native races of the Russian Empire

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XE fcffJEMALTE JFIKLAR32E

THE

NATIVE RACES

OP

THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

BY

E. G. LATHAM, M.D., F.R.S., &c,

AUTHOR OF " THE VARIETIES OF MAN," " THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE," " THE GER3IANIA
OF TACITUS WITH ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES," ETC.

WITH A LARGE COLOURED MAP,

Taken from that of the Imperial Geographical Society of St. Petersburg,
AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON:
HIPPOLYTE BAILLIERE, 219, REGENT STREET;

AND 290, BROADWAY, NEW YORK, U.S.

PARIS: J. B. BAILLIERE, RUE HAUT EFEUILLE.
MADRID: BAILLY BAILLIERE, CALLE DEL PRINCIPE.

1854.

I

^U&R/

NOTICE.

The small amount of real knowledge possessed by
foreigners of the many various races which make up the
population of Russia, combined with the interest uni-
versally felt at this moment in everything relating to
that extensive Empire, has induced us to bring forward
a descriptive account of the tribes occupying its surface,
including all those nations who have been conquered by
the dominant race, or absorbed into its body. This is
accompanied by, and in some degree founded upon, the
great Ethnological and Statistical Map of Russia which
was published by the Imperial Geographical Society of
St. Petersburg in the year 1852.

C0NTE1NTS.

CHAPTER I.

General View of the Three Chief Constituent Stocks of the Kussian
Empire, the Ugrian, the Turk, the Sarmatian — Observations on
the Terms — Geographical .Relations of the Ugrians — Direction of
Movements — Dimensions of the Ugrian Stock — Recognition of the
Samoyeds as Ugrian — Of the Teniseians and Yukahiri— Conspectus
of the Three Stocks ...... 1

CHAPTER II.

The Ugrian Stock— Ugrians of the Government of St. Petersburg—
The Vod— The Izhor— The Auramoiset— The Savakot— The Tshud
of Novogorod and Olonets— The Term Tshud— The Yam . 36

CHAPTER III.

The Ugrian Stock, continued— The Ziranians— The Permians— The
Votiaks — The Besermanians . . . • .47

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

The Ugrian Stock, continued— The Esthonians .

CHAPTER V.

The Ugrian Stock, continued — The Finlanders of the Grand Duchy of
Finland — Tavastrians— Karelians — Quains — The Swedes of the
Esthonian Islands ...... 67

CHAPTER VI.

The Ugrian Stock, continued — The Sabme or Laps — Their Name, Habits,
and Religion — Original Area . . . ' ■ . 77

CHAPTER VII.

The Ugrian Stock, continued — Ugrians of the Volga — The Tsheremis —
The Mordvins— The Tshuvash .... 85

CHAPTER VIII.

The Yoguls and Ostiaks ...... %

CHAPTER IX.

The Samoyeds — But lately recognized as Ugrian — The Northern and
Southern Branches— Their Paganism — The Yeneseians of Klaproth
— TheYukahiri 112

CHAPTER X.

The Turk Stock— The Tartars of the Kij>?<hak Khanates • . 128

CONTENTS. VU

CHAPTER XI.

The Turk Stock, continued— The Province of Orenburg with its
Bashkir. Meshtsheriak, and Teptyar Populations . . 150

CHAPTER XII.

The Turk Stock, continued — The Kirghiz — The Tnikhmen — The Kara-
kalpaks — The Khivans — The Nogays . . .158

CHAPTER XIII.

The Turk Stock, continued — Tartars (so called) of Siberia — Turks not
described under the General Name of Tartar — The Tobol, Ufa,
and Tomski Tartars— The Turali— The Tshulim Turks— The Bara-
binski— The Verkho-Tomski— The Tubintsi— The Teleut— The
Sokhalar or Yakuts . . . . . .172

CHAPTER XIV.

The Sarmatian Stock — Its Divisions and Sub-divisions — Points of
Criticism . . . . . . .188

CHAPTER XY.

The Russian (or Servian) Division of the Slavonians — Pre-Historic
Period — Scythian — Greek — Roman — German — Scandinavian Pe-
riods ........ 207

CHAPTER XVI.

The Lithuanian Branch of the Sarmatian Stock — The Prussians — The
Jaczwings — The Lithuanians — The Lets — The Gothini — The In-
dian and Scandinavian Conquests .... 229

viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVII.

The Sarmatian Stock, continued — The Servians, Bulgarians, and
Poles ........ 251

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Rumanyos of Wallachia, Moldavia, Bessarabia, &c. . . 261

CHAPTER XIX

The Mongols and the Tungusian9 — The Aino, Koriak, and Kamska-
dales— The Indians of Russian America . . . 273

CHAPTER XX

The Dioscurian (Caucasian) — Armenian — and other Populations of the
Russian Empire ...... 298

CHAPTER XXI.

The Russians Proper — Great, Little, White, Red — Diffusion, Ethnolo-
irical and Political — Panslavonism .... 317

Numbers of the Non-Russian Population of Russia in Europe . 335

THE

UGRIAN, TURK, AND SARMATIAN STOCKS.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE THREE CHIEF CONSTITUENT STOCKS OF THE RUSSIAN

EMPIRE, THE UGRIAN, THE TURK, THE SARMATIAN OBSERVATIONS ON

THE TERMS GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS OF THE UGRIANS — DIRECTION OF

MOVEMENTS — DIMENSIONS OF THE UGRIAN STOCK — RECOGNITION OF THE
SAMOTEDS AS UGRIAN — OF THE YENISEIANS AND YUKAHIRI — CONSPECTUS
OF THE THREE STOCKS.

The ethnology of the Russian Empire is, for ninety-
nine parts out of a hundred, the ethnology of three
families, stocks, or varieties, call them which we will; of
three vast families — neither more nor less. And none of
these are the families which have played the important
parts in the history of the West and South ; none are Latin
or Greek, like the great intellectual and conquering nations
of antiquity ; none are Keltic, like the older populations

B

2 THE WORDS TURK

of Gaul, Britain, and Ireland ; none are German, like the
Dutch of Holland, and the Anglo-Saxons of England and
America. None have spread themselves to any great
extent in any of the countries west of the Rhine ; indeed,
in some cases the Elbe may have been their limit. On
the other hand, the most eastern of them touch the fron-
tiers of China, and stretch beyond them.

Thus vast is the area covered by the three great stocks
of (1) the Ugrians, (2) the Turks, and (3) the Sarmatians.

Ugrian, Turk, and Sarmatian — such is the nomen-
clature of the Ethnologist. It is not exactly that of the
ordinary geographer, nor yet that of the civil historian.
Nevertheless, it can not only be defended, but it can be
shewn to be necessary. It is necessary on the same
principle that certain comprehensive terms are necessary
in zoology and botany. The names for the species are in-
sufficient. There are genera, subgenera, and orders ; and
names are wanted for them accordingly. They are not
always easy to hit upon, nor yet are they always adopted
with unanimity. It is rare, too, that they are absolutely
unexceptionable, either in the way of correctness or con-
venience. Thus, in the previous list, the word Turk in-
volves something to learn and something to unlearn. It
means, of course, the Turks of Turkey in the limited and
ordinary sense of the word ; but it also means a vast num-
ber of populations besides ; populations closely and clearly
allied to them. It means the Kirghiz of Independent
Tartary, it means the Tartars of Kazan and Tobolsk, it
means a tribe as distant from Constantinople as that of
the Yakuts on theArctic Sea, at the mouth of the River
Lena. It is, in short, a generic name. Many have sug-

l

AND TARTAR. 3

gested a remedy to the inconvenience arising from its
being a specific name as well; and have used the term
Tartar instead. Yet this word is exceptionable also.
Many of the so-called Tartar tribes are Mongolian, and,
consequently, as different from the Turks as a Kalmuk
is from an Osmanli — a Kalmuk of the steppes of As-
trakhan from an Osmanli of Constantinople. Then,
in the eyes of a Chinese, the Mantshus are Tartars, and
the Mantshu dynasty, against which the present Chinese
revolution is at work, is a Tartar dynasty, as opposed to
a native Chinese one. And even here, the name is in-
convenient, inasmuch as before the conquest by the
Mantshus there was a Mongolian conquest — which was
Tartar also. Yet the Mongolians and Mantshus require
to be distinguished from each other.

From China let us turn to India. When enterprising
men like Lloyd, and Gerard, and Strachey, and Hooker,
and those other observers who have laboured so success-
fully at the elucidation of the geography of the vast
Himalayan range, have got so far northwards and up-
wards as to have left the Indian populations behind them,
and to have come upon the tribes of Tibet, they desig-
nate them as Tartars — Tartars as opposed to the Hindus.
So that, laxly speaking, a Turk may be Tartar, a Mon-
golian a Tartar, a Mantshu a Tartar, and a Tibetan a
Tartar.

This makes it necessary for the Ethnologist to eschew
the term as much as possible. He must, however, use it
occasionally: e. g., if he deal with the history and geogra-
phy of China he must, to a certain extent, speak after
the fashion of his authorities, and use the Chinese nomen-

B 2

4 THE WORDS TURK

clature. In Russia, too, it is hard to escape the term
altogether, since the Russian calls all the Turks, both of
his domain and his neighbourhood, Tartars, when speaking
of the Tartars of the Crimea, the Tartars of Kazan, the
Tartars of Independent Tartary. At the same time he
restricts the word to the tribes of Turk origin ; and does
not, like the Chinese, apply it to any Mongolians. The
Mongolians he calls Kalmuks. A Chinese would call
them Tartars.

Tins term will be noticed again, and a convenient
application of it be suggested. The present observations
have one end only ; viz., the explanation of the power of
the word Turk. Its import is very general. It means all
the populations akin to the Turks of Em-ope ; the Turks
of Europe being only a single branch of a vast stock.
But how are we to avoid ambiguity 1 The Turks in
Europe must have a name ; and if the specific term be
identical with the generic, there will be confusion. Be it
so. For the purposes of ethnology it is best to use the
names Ottoman or Osmanli, when we write about the
Turks of Constantinople. Constantinople is the metro-
polis of Rumelia, and the Constantinopolitan Mahometans
are the Osmanli of Rumelia. A European Turk, then,
is an Osmanli. A Turk of Asia Minor is an Osmanli —
an Osmanli of Anatolia. The Turks that we are defending
against Russia are the Osmanli of the Ottoman Empire —
the mass, at least, are Osmanli Between the forms
Osriiaull and Ottoman there is but little difference.
Each comes from the name Othman, the founder of the
dynasty.

The terms suggested, although it has been considered

AND TAKTAR. 5

that they require explanation, are by no means so new
as they appear at first sight. Common parlance uses the
word Turk pretty widely. Besides the three Turkeys — in
EurojDe, in Asia, and in Africa — of the maps, we have,
on the northern frontier of Persia, the country of the Turk-
o-mans, or Turh-est&n ; so that common parlance gives us
Turks in the very interior of Asia.

Then there are reasons against such a name as Sarma-
tian. It occasionally confounds the classical geographer.
Ugrian too, is a new word — new, or nearly so — new in
England. Nevertheless, the two large and valuable
volumes of Muller upon the populations akin to the Fin-
landers are upon the " Ugrian Stock" ( Ugrische Volks
stamm). So that, upon the whole, the nomenclature is
justifiable : at any rate, it is no easy matter to improve it.
Hence the three important terms are (1) Ugrian, (2) Turk,
(3) Sarmatian.

The ethnology of the Russian Empire is the ethnology
of these three stocks, in ninety-nine cases out of a
hundred, at least. Other families have played some part
in it, but only a subordinate one. The ethnology oi
Russia is Ugrian, Turk, and Sarmatian — Sarmatian, Turk,
and Ugrian.

How far is the converse the case ? How far is the
area of these three families contained within the limits
of Russia ? Have they always and only fought, fled, con-
quered, migrated within the Russian boundaries ? Or
have they occupied other parts of the world ? To this we
answer, that they have each and all a history besides their
history as Russians, or parts of Russia ; and each in his
degree — that of the Ugrians being the least important.

6 THE WORD UGRIAN.

Of this we shall find the illustration in the sequel. Our
present business is to give their due prominence to the
three names.

Ugrian means populations akin to the present in-
habitants of Finland, wheresoever they may be found ;
the chief characters being their language. Hence it is
the name for the class that contains the Fin and its
allied languages, and the men that speak such languages.

A few years back, but little was known about these
tongues. They were, for the most part, unwritten, and,
as such, considered barbarous. The few writers that
studied them, studied them singly ; i.e., the language of
Finland by itself, the language of Lapland by itself also.
This retarded the general diffusion of the knowledge of
their mutual affinities and of their relationships to each
other, as members of one large class. It retarded the
diffusion of any general information on the subject, but
the more important facts were by no means uninvesti-
gated. When Gibbon engaged in the ethnology of the
Majiar conquerors of Hungary, he found that Fin
scholars had already applied themselves to the problem
of their language, and that Ganander and Gyarmathi had
detected undoubted affinities with the Laplandish. He
hesitated at adopting their results ; and, considering the
comparative philology of the time, he did right. Yet
he notified the researches.

These were the first steps by which the Ugrian tongues
were brought under notice. Then came the notice of the
peculiarities of their structure. There were, for instance,
some fifteen cases in the Finlandish noun — a fact that in-
terested such classical scholars as knew of it. But these

THE WORD UGRIAN. 7

were not very numerous. Hence, the full value of the
class became apparent only when the populations of
Siberia and central Asia — the tribes of the Volga, the
Petshora, the Obi, and the Yenisey — got noticed.

At the present moment there are Fin scholars, and
Lap philologists, just as there are men learned in Arabic
or Sanscrit.

As to the word Ugrian itself, its immediate origin
is Russian ; and the populations to which it applies,
generally, know nothing about it as a native name; just
as the Barbarians of the Greeks and Romans, knew no
such name as Barbarus (or Bapfiapog) — just, too, as such
names as Negro and Red Indian are strange to the
Blacks of Africa and the aborigines of America. Ugrian,
in short, is a word all but foreign to the Ugrians them-
selves. I imagine it means borderer ; being just such a
term in Slavonic as Marchman is in German. It means
a population on some Slavonic frontier.

From this it has grown to mean certain non-
slavonic populations. It comes from the root -k-r, a
boundary ; a root which lies at the bottom of the
words Ukraine, Gar m-thia, Ca/m-iola,the Alpes Carn-ise,
the syllables Ucker- in the word Ucker-maxk, the
name of the old Wagr-ians of Holstein, and (not im-
possibly) in the words Hun, Hung - ax j, and (even)
Finn. The justification of these latter etymologies will
be given in the sequel. A notice, too, of a difficulty in
respect to the doctrine of its exclusively Slavonic origin
will be taken when we come to the sketch of the Sir-
anians.

The portion of the Ugrian history and Ugrian ethno-

8 POSITION OF THE UGRIANS.

logy, which is not included in the history and ethnology
of the Russian Empire, is small. I repeat the statement,
for the sake of indicating its nature and extent. Two
sections of the Ugrian stock — two sections, and no more —
are at the present moment located beyond the domain
of the Czar; two sections of very different degrees of
social and political importance, but two sections which,
nevertheless, are undeniably reducible to the same class.
The first of these is the Lap population of Sweden and
Norway ; the second that of the Majiars of Hungary — one
Scandinavian, the other Austrian ; one rude, the other
civilized ; one undersized, the other wellgrown ; one
insignificant, the other an object of interest and im-
portance to the historian — both Ugrian, nevertheless;
both Ugrian, though many of the Majiars ignore the
relationship, or are ashamed of it.

The Ugrian stock was, and is, the central stock of the
three; its original position being between that of the
Turk and the Sarmatian. Of these the former lay on
its eastern, the latter on its western side — west by south-
west. And each pressed forwards from its own proper
area, and in its own definite direction — the Turk from
east to west, the Sarmatian from west to east. So that
the Ugrians were like the iron between the hammer and
the anvil. As the lateral stocks intruded and encroached,
the central stock yielded and retired — sometimes wholly,
sometimes partially ; sometimes to be extinguished altoge-
ther ; sometimes to amalgamate in the way of intermixture ;
sometimes to protract an existence in disrupted and iso-
lated fragments. And then come the ways in which this
separate existence shews itself — sometimes it is in the Ian-

POSITION OF THE UGBIANS. 9

guage ; sometimes the physiognomy ; sometimes the super-
stitions. So that the evidence of an Ugrian occupancy
varies, and the criteria of Ugrian blood are uncertain.

However, such was the original situs. The Ugrian in
the centre ; the Sarmatians and the Turks on the side — pres-
sures lateral, converging in the direction of the Ugrians.
But this is not all. The original situs of the Turks an d Sar-
matians, although east and west in respect to the Ugrians,
was not absolutely so. Ugria lay in the north as well
as in the centre. This gives the movement that effected
the chief displacements a complex character. They were
from south to north, as well as from east to west. No
division of the Turk stock, no division of the Sarmatian,
originally lay within the Arctic Circle, however much
they may have moved northwards in after-times. The
Ugrians, on the contrary, are eminently Circum-polar ; so
that if we look to their older occupancies we shall find
that they form the fringe to the Arctic Ocean along the
whole (or nearly the whole) coast of Asia and Europe;
playing the same part as the Eskimo do in America,
Indeed, in some respects, the Laps and Samoyeds may
be called the Eskimo of the Old World just as the Es-
kimo are the Laps and Samoyeds of the New.

At the same time we must guard against making the
Ugrians, too, exclusively Northrons. Some of them lie
as far south as the latitude of London — the Majiars fur-
ther south stilL But, as the Majiars are only immigrants
into their present occupancies they are not looked upon
as representatives of the original distribution. I will
continue these preliminaries by giving what I believe to
have been the geographical distribution of the three

B 3

10 POSITION OF THE UGRIANS.

stocks— say B. C. 1000, 2000, or 3000; i. e., during some
xmdetermined portion of the pre-historic period.

1. There were Sarmatians in Lithuania, Volhynia,
Gallicia, and Transylvania, these being (for the parts
north of the Danube) their most eastern localities.

2. There were Turks in Independent Tartary, this
being their most western locality.

3. The whole intervening portion, surmounted on the
north as far as the Arctic Sea by allied populations, was
Ugrian — the Volga being Ugrian, the Dnieper being
Ugrian, the most Russian parts of modern Russia being
Ugrian. So that the Muscovites or Russians are a new
and intrusive population — i. e., comparatively new. In
certain localities they may have been occupants 3,000
years ; in some less than 300 ; in some not 30. They are
the spreading and the encroaching population. They be-
gan to be so early ; though no earlier, perchance, than did
the Turks. Whoever, however, it may have been who
encroached the most, it was the Ugrians who were the most
encroached upon. The Ugrians it was who were broken
up betimes, and the Ugrians it is who, at the present
period, are found in some of their original localities — no-
where. In some they occur as isolated patches of popu-
lation; islands, so to say, in a Russian and Turkish sea.
In others they preponderate.

It is not difficult to determine beforehand the different
Ugrian localities. In the south and west they are likely
to be the scarcest; nay, they are likely to be non-existent.
How should it be otherwise? The south and west are
the parts nearest the original Sarmatians; the areas
whereon the encroachment first began ; the starting points

POSITION OF THE UGRIANS. 11

for the displacement. Just what happened in England
happened in Russia. In England the Welsh elements
are at their minimum in the eastern counties ; indeed, in
such regions as Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, &c, they
have long disappeared to all eyes but those of the minute
ethnologist, who, with care and pains, just finds traces
of them in the local dialects, local names, local super-
stitions. In Devonshire and Herefordshire they become
clearer. In Cornwall they existed almost within the
memory of man. In the Principality they live still, and
are likely to live longer. However, in England there
are no isolated patches of Welshmen; no central moun-
tain, no impenetrable wood, no impracticable swamp,
that preserves the remnants of an earlier population
whilst all around has changed. Yet there were such
patches once. When Cheshire and South Lancashire
were English, Cumberland was Welsh: so that in this
case there was an analogue of what we find amongst the
Ugrians of Russia. Had Robin Hood and the outlaws
of Sherwood Forest — had Hereward and the heroes of the
fens — been the descendants and representatives of the
Ancient Britons, the parallel would have been closer still.
However, it is close enough to say that the Ugrians are to
Russia what the Kelts are to Great Britain and France.

The dimensions of the Ugrian class were always
large, but, of late years, they have become larger. This
is because certain uninvestigated populations, whereof
the ethnological position was uncertain, have since been
claimed as Ugrian — and that upon reasonable grounds.
Hence we have the word with its older, and the word
with its newer, signification ; the class with its earlier,

12 THE SAMOYEDS

and the class with its later, dimensions ; the stock as it
was when Miiller wrote his work on the Ugrische Folk-
stamme, and the class as it has been left by Castren
and other Fin inquirers.

The Ugrian area always spread as far southwards as
the Lower Volga, even into the Governments of Saratov,
Simbirsk, and Tambov.

Then there are the Laps of Norwegian Finmark, at
the very northern extremity of Europe, the Laps of the
North Cape. These occupy the coast both eastwards and
westwards — in the direction of Bergen and in the direction
of Archangel. They dip, too, inland. The western side
of the White Sea is Russian Lapland. The northern
part of Sweden is Swedish Lapland. Finmark is Nor-
wegian Lapland. But the White Sea makes a break,
and where the White Sea begins Lapland ends. On the
other side of Archangel lies the country of the Samoyeds.
Now, it is only lately that the Samoyeds have been deemed
Ugrian. Hence, they belong to the class in its modified
form — with its extended import. But there are other
populations in the same category with the Samoyeds ;
populations unclassed, or only classed provisionally. These
carry us far eastward ; far eastward beyond the Yenisey ;
beyond the river which, to theUgrians of the earlier classi-
fication, was the eastern limit. There it was where the
Ostiak branch was found in its furthest locality ; succeed-
ed, eastward, by the Yeniseians. The Yeniseians were so
called for want of a better name, and because they lived
on the river Yenisey. But the Yeniseians and Sa-
moyeds are in the same category ; so that what makes
the Samoyed Ugrian, makes the Yeniseian Ugrian also.

AND YENISEIANS. 13

Then there come a family not only beyond the Yenisey,but
beyond the Lena — beyond the Lena, and on the Kolyma,
Yana, and Indijerka — a family that carries the Ugrians
well-nigh up to Behring's Straits, bringing them almost
in contact with the Eskimo. This is the family of the
Yukahiri — Ugrian because the Yeniseian is Ugrian, just
as the Yeniseian was what the Samoyed was found to be.
Here, in the parts near Behring's Straits, lies the eastern-
most boundary of the tribes allied to the Finlanders
and Laplanders of Europe.

The original boundary (as aforesaid) was the Yenisey
— the original boundary on the east.

That on the west has yet to be considered.

The west must be divided into the north-west and the
south-west ; the difference between the two lying in the
fact of the former limit being a matter easy of investiga-
tion, patent, and transparent, the latter being a piece of
minute ethnography. This it is even now. But what is
it when we make allowance for displacements and at-
tempts to reconstruct the original Ugrian area? A
harder problem still. I think, in my own mind, the
original western limit lay in the Government of Minsk —
so far west as that However, this is a matter of specu-
lation— induction, if we prefer the term. The question
is, the present limit westwards. For the north, this is
the westernmost point of Norwegian Lapland; for the
centre, a tract in Courland; for the south, a spot in
the Government of Tambov where the most western
locality, of the most southern Ugrians, that of cer-
tain Mordvins, is to be found. All between this and
Minsk is the Ugria of an extinct, an amalgamated

14 CHARACTER OF THE UGRIAN AREA.

Ugrian population; just as all between the German
Ocean and the Welsh frontier is the Britannia of an
extinct or amalgamated family of Britons.

1. From the North Cape to the Governments of Penza
and Tambov —

2. From the Indijerka to the Atlantic Ocean —

3. From the Indijerka to the Government of Tambov.
Such is the extent of the Ugrian area, in its widest

sense, as it at present exists.

d. Instead of the Indijerka read Yenisey, and you
have the area of the Ugria of Muller and the writers of
the beginning of the century.

Instead of the Government of Tambov read Minsk,
and you have the Ugria of the time anterior to
the Turk and Sarmatian encroachments, as reconstructed
by the ethnologist, upon the principles of ethnological
criticism ; or, changing the expression, palaeontologically.

Such is the area, such the portion of the earth's sur-
face, that is or has been Ugrian. It is a portion that,
year by year, month by month, and day by day, decreases.
It is an area of which the frontier recedes, I believe, in
every direction — in every direction, or nearly so. At
any rate, its diminution is the general rule, its increase
the exception. Has this always been the case? It has
been so generally. If it were not so, Russia would be Fin
rather than Muscovite. History, however, supplies some
instances to the contrary. Mr. Norris has committed
himself to the doctrine that a population speaking a lan-
guage with decidedly Ugrian analogies, once effected per-
manent settlements so far south as Persia ; or (if not this)
that the original area extended so much farther southwards.

CHARACTER OF THE UGRIAN AREA. 15

The Majiar conquest of Hungary was undoubtedly Ugrian.
Upon the whole, however, the Ugrians have been a popu-
lation of a receding rather than an encroaching frontier.

Hence, we shall not be surprised if the wJwle of the
Ugrian area be more or less broken up — if the Tungus-
ians and Koriaks in Asia have effected displacements, and
obliterated populations, just as the Turks and Sarmatians
have done in Europe.

The Ugrian is a population of a receding rather than
an encroaching frontier. This it is as compared with the
Turks, Sarmatians, Tungusians, and Koriaks. Some
parts, however, of the family are stronger and more en-
croaching than others ; i.e., some branches have extended
themselves at the expense of others. The Laps, for in-
stance, stretched further southwards in the direction of
St. Petersburgh than they do now. The Fins of Fin-
land displaced them — just as the Franks of Germany
displaced, in the parts about Hanover and Oldenburg,
the Angles and Frisians, who were, nevertheless, just as
German as themselves.

The Ugrians are a pure rather than a mixed popula-
tion ; though this is a rather uncertain point, even for
the nineteenth century. Upon the whole, however, they
seem to intermarry amongst themselves ; e.g., the Estho-
nian and Let in Esthonia and Livonia, keep separate.
The Finlanders and Swedes, however, intermarried. The
more isolated populations of the Volga keep more sepa-
rate than not. What, however, took place in the times
of their earlier history is problematical. Did the Turk,
as he encroached, connect himself with the Ugrians he
encroached on ? Did the Russian ? If so, vast portions

1G THE SAKMATIAN STOCK.

of Russia may be Ugrian on the mother's side; as I
think they are.

The phenomena of intermixture between the different
divisions of the Ugrian family itself are neither numerous
nor clear.

The chief facts are to be found in Lapland. Here there
is a great deal of intermixture with the Fin of Finland ;
and that to the improvement of the Lap.

I now attempt to give a kind of conspectus of the
chief characteristics of the three divisions in hand : also
a slight notice of the value of each group as a class. To
the learned ethnologist this is made clear in a few
words. To the learned ethnologist it is, perhaps, unne-
cessary.

I venture, however, not only to presume, that, for the
general reader, something of the sort is required, but
also to excuse myself for making a temporary change
in the arrangement. We have hitherto given precedence
of notice to the Ugrians. This is because they are the
oldest inhabitants of Russia; the most central also. But
it is not convenient to take them first in order now.
This is because they are transitional or intermediate to
the other two — the Sarmatians giving one extreme, the
Turks the other. Between these He the Ugrians. Now
the points of character of the intermediate group will be
best understood when we have given those of the two
extremes.

The Sakmatians. — One of the two branches into
which the great stock, which we find it convenient to desig-
nate by theterm Sarmatian, is divided, is called Slavonic,
the other Lithuanian. The exact relation of these two

THE SARMATIAN STOCK. 17

branches to each other has yet to be determined ; perhaps
it can scarcely be made out. Some writers enlarge on
the points of difference; others on those of similarity.

" The Slavonic and Litlmanic are allied to each other
as the Scandinavian is to the German."

" The Slavonic and Litlmanic are allied to each other
as the Gaelic is to the Welsh."

" The Slavonic and Litlmanic are allied to each other
as the Latin is to the Greek."

"The Slavonic and Litlmanic are as little allied to
each other as the Slavonic and German, the German
and Keltic, the Lithuanian and the Latin."

"The Slavonic constitutes one separate substantive
division of the languages called Indo-European, and
the Litlmanic, another."

Such and such like statements and similes represent
the conflicting opinions on this point. Those of the pre-
sent writer are decided against all the broader lines of
demarcation; and he consequently subordinates both
to the class termed Sarmatian without the least hesita-
tion— indeed, he would bring a still more important tongue,
the Sanskrit,* under the same denomination; only he
thinks that in doing so he would be in too small a mi-
nority for the practical exposition of his subject. Even in
the classification he proposes he is in a doubtful majority,
if he be in a majority at all. The present teaching, how-
ever, whatever it may have been hitherto, sets in the
direction of a " Sarmatian Stock." Schleicher (for in-
stance) in the " Languages of Europe "-f- speaks of the

* For the reasoning on this point see chapter on the original
Slavonic area.
| Die Sprachen Europas. — Bonn, 1850.

18 THE SARMATIAN STOCK

" Letto-Slavonic Family."* A monograph of DaaeVf-
goes further both in the expression of the opinion of the
writer, and in the proof of the soundness of his view.
Other authorities could be quoted ; but enough, perhaps,
has been said to justify the use of the term, and to indi-
cate the value of the class it applies to.

The Slavonic languages have been differently classed
Those, however, which exist at the present moment, as
spoken and living languages are referrable to one of four
central groups — (a) the Polish, (6) the Bohemian, (c)
the Servian, and (d) the Russian ; there being dialects
and sub-dialects, and (what creates greater complications)
transitional or intermediate forms besides. Taking cog-
nizance of these latter, we get the addition of the (e) Lu-
satian, (f) the Slovak, and (g) the Bulgarian. The mea-
sure of the importance of the Slavonic tongues lies in the
fact of their being spoken by not less (probably by more)
than seventy-eight millions of human beings-*— Schaf-
farik's numbers being as follows: —

Poles 9,365,000

Bohemians 7,167,000 %

Lusatians 142,000

IUyrians, &c 7,246,000§

Bulgarians 3,587,000

Russians 51,184,000

Total 78,691,000

* Lettisch-Slawisches Familien-paar.

\ Om den Lithauiske Folkestammes Forhold til den Slavoniske.
— Christiana, 1851.

% This includes the Slovak of Hungary.

§ This includes the Servian, Croatian, Dalmatian, Montenegro,
and Carinthian.

THE SARMATIAN STOCK. 19

The Lithuanic, on the contrary, is spoken in its two
forms — Lithuanian and Let — by only,

Lithuanians 716,886

Lets 872,107

1,598,993

This means the Lithuanians and Lets of the Russian
Empire. To these we may add a few from East Prussia.
Having done this, we have the whole of the division.

The geographical relations of the Sarmatians are essen-
tially European — the European countries of Lusatia, Bo-
hemia, Carinthia, Carniola, Hungary, Illyria, Poland,
Russia, and East Prussia being their occupancies. In
none of these do we find any extreme condition of cli-
mate— as determined by either latitude or sea-leveL
Except in the case of the more northern Russians the
Arctic circle is never approached ; and it must be remem-
bered that these northern Russians, the Russians of
Archangel and Siberia, are by no means in situ. On
the contrary, they are intruders of comparatively recent
origin. The southern limit of the Sarmatians is in Ma-
cedonia, and on the Albanian frontier — Ragusa being
their last town in the direction of the tropics, from which
it is far removed. So that they he wholly within the
temperate zone. In respect to sea-level no Sarmatians
are mountaineers in the way that the Swiss, the Tibetans,
and the Peruvians are. The highest ranges they occupy
are in Bohemia, Gallicia, and Montenegro. No point
here exceeds 10,000 feet.

Of all the populations of Europe they have the least

20 THE SARMATIAN STOCK.

amount of sea-board, in proportion to their mass; the
Spaniards and Germans not excepted.

No stock has so large a portion of its area spread out
in level plains — witness the wide flats of Poland, and the
wider ones of Russia. The mass, then, of the Sarmatians
are agricultural. Before they were this they were herds-
men— hunters, perhaps, in the forest districts. At the
same time, we must guard against any undue generality.
Where there are mines, the Sarmatian is a miner — as
in Gallicia, Hungary, Bohemia, and Carinthia; and
where there is a sea-board he is a sailor, as in Dalmatia.

So it is with their intellectual aptitudes and habits,
with their creeds, and with their political ideas. They
vary with the conditions of their evolution. At the
same time, the extremes lie within moderate limits.
There is no approach to savage life in the way of their
social economy, and no manifestation of incapacity
for such exercises of the intellect as present themselves.
Say that the flourishing period of Polish learning
gives us the development of the Sarmatian mind in
its brightest phase. Say that the most unfavourable
aspect is presented by the Lithuanian serf. Neverthe-
less, the extremes lie within a small compass ; within a
smaller compass than the extremes of several other
large groups. Of these (for the sake of illustration)
take the one winch contains the populations whose lan-
guages are derived from the Latin, and compare the Sar-
dinian mountaineer, or the Wallachian, with the French-
man of Paris. Or take the German stock. Though the
difference between an American of Ohio and a German
of Hesse, be not exactly the difference between a Livo-

THE SARMATIAN STOCK. 21

man and (say) a Ragusan, it is, probably, the same in
amount.

So it is with their physical conformation. No Sarma-
tians differ from each other so much as the Laplander
does from the Majiar of Hungary; perhaps, not so much
as an Alabama American differs from a Swede or a
Frieslander.

The sources of the Sarmatian civilization are two-fold ;
a fact in which it stands alone amongst the families of
Northern Europe. None of these have taken their
cultivation directly from Greece. Neither have they
their Christian creed. The Kelts and the Germans were
converted from Home.

Now, the Eastern portion of the Slavonians, belongs
to the Greek Church. Then, in respect to Romanism
and Protestantism, the Western Church is divided; Po-
land having, at one time, been all but a Protestant
country. Livonia is so at the present moment. No other
European stock, except the Slavonian and Albanian, con-
tains any Mahometans. In Bosnia there are several — so
that there we have the creed of Mahomet combined with
the language of one of the early bible-translations.

As is the history of the creed, so is that of the alphabet.
The Poles, Bohemians, Lusatians, and all the members
of the Lithuanic stock, took their letters from Germany,
these being Roman. The Servians and Russians founded
their alphabet on the Greek.

Upon the whole, then, the Sarmatian is a stock of
pretty uniform characteristics — characteristics, however,
winch are not more uniform than the physical and histo-
rical conditions under which they are found — not more

22 THE SARMATIAN STOCK.

uniform, probably not less. It is safe to say, that the
one class bears much such a ratio to the other, as we
should expect a priori.

In all respects the Sarmatian is more European than
Asiatic; more German, Keltic, Latin, or Greek, than
Mongolian, Tibetan, or Chinese. The straight black
hair, and black or hazel irides, characteristics of the
Turks, Mongols, and almost all the other Asiatics, are
largely replaced amongst the Sarmatians by grey eyes
and brown hair — brown in its lighter as well as its darker
shades; brown, including flaxen. Yet the face is flatter,
and the head broader, than is the case with the more ex-
treme European types — e. g., the Italian, the Spanish,
and some varieties of the German. As compared with
any family of the whole world, except the German and
the Kelt, the Sarmatian is light-haired. The general cha-
racter of the more important parts of the skeleton, espe-
cially that of the cranium, is less certain. According to
the nomenclature of Pr. Retzius, the Russian skull, at
least, is brakhy-kephalic,* and herein it approaches the
Siberian forms of organization. The same is, probably,
the case, with the Polish, Bohemian, and other divisions.
The investigation, however, is difficult and incomplete

It is especially complicated by the doubtful character
of the early Sarmatian history. At the present time the
limits of the Sarmatian stock are, as near as may be

* This means that, instead of the diameter of the cranium from
the front to the back being (say) one-fourth longer than the di-
ameter from side to side, as is the case with populations called
dololikho-kephalic (long-headed), the side-to-side, or inter-parie-
tal, is nearly as long as the fore-and-aft diameter.

THE SARMATIAN STOCK. 23

co -extensive with the diffusion of the Slavonic and Lithu-
anian forms of speech. In other words, it rests upon the
test of Language. But this test, never absolute, is emi-
nently insufficient here, inasmuch as two facts, undeni-
able and undoubted, complicate and traverse it.

a. There is a considerable amount of Ugrian blood
amongst certain populations whose speech is Slavonic.

b. There is a considerable amount of Slavonic blood
amongst certain populations whose speech is German.
In the time of Charlemagne the boundary between the
Slavonians and Germans lay so far west as the Elbe ;
for that river formed it

Now, the explanation of this lies in the fact of the
Sarmatians having encroached on the Ugrians, whereas
the Germans have encroached on the Sarmatians. If so,
the Eastern parts of the Slavonic area are less Sarmatian
than their language makes them, and the Eastern parts of
the German area less Teutonic ; facts which shew that we
are now in the middle of a new question — the question
of purity or mixture of blood. What if this carry us to
the assertion that many of the German writers and
thinkers may be — to a certain degree, Slavonic, i. e., Sla-
vonic in the way that such Englishmen as Davy and Burke
are Cornish Britons, or Irish Gaels? This is a question
which will be enlarged upon hereafter. So will that of
the original magnitude of the Sarmatian area. At pre-
sent it is one of the large ones of the world — larger than
any other in Europe, but not larger than the Turk in
Asia, nor, perhaps, the Algonkin in America.

This, however, applies only in respect to the surface of
the country that it covers. The density of the population,

2i THE TURK STOCK.

or the relation of the number of the Samiatian men and
women to the tract of country which they cover, is another
matter. In number the Sarmatians yield to the Chinese.

It is safe to say, that, whatever may be the importance
of certain other characteristics, the magnitude of the Sar-
matian area, and the number of Samiatian individuals,
are amongst the most prominent

The Turks. — The Turk group is simpler than the
Samiatian. It falls into no such divisions as the Sla-
vonic and Lithuanian ; in other words, the differences be-
tween its extreme members lie within a smaller compass.
They are chiefly calculated upon the varieties of the dif-
ferent forms of speech. Of these —

A. 1. The Central and Northern division is found in In-
dependent Tartary and certain of the Turkish parts of
of the Russian Empire to the north and west thereof.
Thus the Kirghiz, the Bashkirs of Orenburg, the No-
gays of the Government of Caucasus, the Meshtsheriak of
Siberia, belong to the group.

2. The Eastern division contains the dialects of Chi-
nese Tartary, of Bokhara, and also, according to Beresin,
the Turkoman of Turkestan.

8. The Western division is that of the Osmanlis of
Rumelia and Anatolia.

B. 4. The Arctic Turks, called by themselves Sokhalar,
but by their neighbours Yakuts, are an outlying section
whose occupancy is the banks of the Lena and the parts
witliin the Arctic Circle.

Sketch as this is, it suggests the idea of the enormous
area apportioned to the Turkish stock. It is, perhaps, the
largest in the world, measured by the mere extent of sur-

THE TURK STOCK. 25

face ; not, however the largest in respect to the number of
individuals it contains. In respect to its physical con-
ditions, its range of difference is large. The bulk of its
surface is a plateau — the elevated table-land of Central
Asia ; so that, though lying within the same parallels as
a great part of Sarmatia, its climates are more extreme.
But then its outlying portions are the very shores of the
Icy Sea, whilst there are other Turks as far south as
Egypt. In Bumelia and Anatolia they occupy some of
the most favoured parts of the world. In Caucasus they
are to be found as mountaineers. The Kirghiz of
Pamer occupy one of the highest table-lands in the
world. They are essentially the occupants of a Steppe —
herdsmen, horsemen, in some cases camel-drivers. The
Sokhalar use the reindeer and the dog. The sea-board of
the Turks is small ; neither can it be said that where thev
have had any, they have made any notable use of it.
But it must be remembered, that they have had in such
instances a population as essentially maritime as the
Greeks by their side. Agriculture, under fitting circum-
stances, has been less neglected. From the Crimea, from
that part of Turkestan which is watered by the Jurjan,
evidence may be collected that the Turk, simply by the fact
of his belonging to the Turk stock, is by no means re-
pugnant to agricultural industry. In Europe he is a
conqueror, and, as such, gets his work done on easier
terms than those that stimulate industry.

In the way of city-building, few of the Turk tribes have
exhibited any activity. The tent, rather than the house,
is their natural home. Besides which, they have gene-
rally conquered countries already civilized; soils already

c

26 THE TURK STOCK.

built upon. Constantinople shews this. So do the towns
of Anatolia.

The Sokhalar are either Pagans or imperfect Christians
of the Greek Church, their conversion having been
attempted by the Russians. In Chinese Tartary there
may be Buddhists — though here I speak with imperfect
information. In the sixth century a Turk tribe was con-
verted, by Nestorian missionaries from Syria, to Chris-
tianity. Saving these exceptional phenomena the whole
Turk stock is Mahometan — next to the Arab, the most
exclusively Mahometan in the world. The Turks are
Sunnites rather than Shiites — the Persians being Shiite
rather than Sunnite. Their intellectual development
takes a favourable form only when contrasted with that
of the ruder populations, such as the Mongolians, the
Mantschus, and the Ugrians. The Indian civilization is
foreign to them ; the Chinese civilization foreign also.
The European has yet to be adopted. For their alpha-
bet they have two sources — Christian Syria, Mahome-
tan Arabia. The influence, however, of the former has
been superseded by that of the latter; so that at the
present moment the Turk, next to the Arab, is the great
Mahometan family. The character of the original Pa-
ganism is hard to be ascertained. The historical notices
of the Turks under tJiat name, anterior to the introduc-
tion of the Koran, are few. They may be increased
by resorting to the history of some of the barbarous tribes
of antiquity ; e. g., the Huns and the Scythians. This,
however, is the history of the stock under another name ;
and it should be added that it is not every investigator
who admits these affinities, however decidedly the present

THE TURK STOCK. 27

writer may commit himself to the support of them. The
best field, however, for the study of the Turk mythology in
its unmodified form is the Yakut country, where (as
already has been stated) the original Paganism is still
retained. It is essentially Shamanistic (whatever may
be the import of this word) in character ; i. e., it is akin,
in its general features, to the superstitions of the Laps, the
Samoyeds, the rude populations of the Kolyma and Indi-
jerka. We may say (if we choose) that it is Siberian.

The physical appearance of the Turk family is scarcely
susceptible of any very general expression. We may
call it Mongol, and, in doing so, we should be strictly
correct in respect to the northern and the eastern branches.
The Uzbeks of Bokhara are described in terms that
would suit a Kalmuk. The Turcomans of Turkestan
have a similar physiognomy. So have the Kirghiz of
Independent Tartary ; and, in a less degree, the Nogays
of the Government of Caucasus. Still less favoured are
the Turks of Siberia, of the Barabinski Steppe, and the
colder parts of Tobolsk and Irkutsk. They fall off in
size, and degenerate in strength. Finally, we reach the
Arctic Circle, where the figure of the Yakut approaches
that of the Lap or Samoyed ; still, however, preserving a
superiority. At any rate, his features are Mongol. Von
Middendorf expressly states this, and contrasts their
language with their physiognomy. The former connects
them with the Osmanli of Constantinople, the latter with
the Mongols of the wall of China. It is safe, then, to
say, that for the northern and eastern Turks the state-
ment that their physical organization is Mongol is justi-
fiable. It is more than this. It is the best way of

c 2

28 THE TURK STOCK.

expressing the fact. There are, of course, differences of
detail ; hut, on the whole, the word Mongol is the best
single term we can adopt. The face is flat, the head is
broad rather than long, the nose sunken, the skin tawny,
the beard scanty, the hair strong, black, and straight, the
eyes occasionally oblique.

But turn from this picture to that of the Osmanli of
Rumelia or Anatolia, whose nose is aquiline, whose
chin is bearded, and who may often serve as a model
of manly beauty. The term Mongol no longer has its
application. The physiognomy approaches the Euro-
pean type. It approaches it. More than this cannot be
said. Even in the most European forms the cheek-
bones continue to be prominent, the skin brown or
brunette, and the suborbital portion of the face flattened.
What are we to infer from this ? That the changes in the
physical conditions of climate and soil have effected other
changes, or that the blood has become less Turk and more
something else through intermixture with Anatolians,
Georgians, Circassians, Europeans, &c. ? I give no opinion
upon this point. I only raise the question as to which
of the two Turk forms of physiognomy is the normal,
and which the exceptional, one. A glance at the" map gives
the answer. The rule is with the Usbeks, the Kirghiz,
and the Turcomans, the populations of the Mongol organi-
zation. The exception is with the Osmanli — the Turks
of the smaller geographical area ; the Turks of a tract of
country which was, originally, other than Turkish ; the
Turks who have been most exposed to influences pre-
viously untried ; the Turks who have had the greatest
opportunity for the introduction of foreign blood in the way

THE TURK STOCK. 29

of intermixture ; and the Turks who, of the nations of
the world, have made it a practice to avail themselves
of it.

The ordinary physiognomy, then, of the Turk tribes
is Mongol — the Yakuts on one side, and the Osmanli on
the other, presenting the extreme forms. This leads us
to the notice of the physical conditions under which they
live.

The vast magnitude of their area has been indicated.
It stretches from south to north, over more parallels of
latitude than the whole of Europe, inasmuch as the Turks
of Syria lie south of the most southern parts of Greece,
and the Yakuts of the Lena approach the Pole as near as
the most northern Laplanders. At the same time, a line
passing midway through the Turk area would nearly
coincide with one that bisected the Sarmatian. In the
way of altitude, we have extremes equally important.
The Kirghiz of Pamer seek for summer-pastures at the
height of more than 10,000 feet.

The social organization of the Turk stock rests essen
tially on the division into tribes, a constitution common
to the Mongols and the Mantshus in Central Asia (per-
Jiaps, also, to some of the Bhot or Tibetan populations),
and to the Brahuis, the Biluchis, and the Kurds of Persia.
It is also Arab and Jewish ; partially African, still more
partially European.

Other characteristics of greater or less importance
and generality could be attributed to the Turk family,
if we went into the early history of it. But the early
history of all nations is beset with uncertainties, and de-
mands, besides, too much criticism to be dealt with in the

30 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

unconditional manner required in a sketch like the
present.

The Ugrians. — With the exception of the Majiars of
Hungary, every division and sub-division of the Ugrian
class is contained within the boundaries of the Russian
Empire. Hence, they will, each and all, have a separate
notice. For this reason, the present notice of them is
short ; and they will rather be compared and contrasted
with the other two stocks, than come under any especial
substantive description.

Their physiognomy is so far Turk, that the writers
who apply the term Mongol, as the designation for
one of the primary varieties of the human species in the
way of physical conformation — the writers, in short,
who adopt the nomenclature of Blumenbach — place the
Ugrians and Turks in the same class ; that class being the
Mongol. So that, in the eyes of the anatomist, the
Turks and Ugrians belong to the same great division of
mankind.

So they do in the eyes of the philologues, who, having
originally brought the languages represented by the
Turkish, the Proper Mongolian and the Mantshu, under
three divisions (respectively called Turk, Mongol, and
Tungusian), eventually admitted a fourth — the Ugrian —
the one before us.

In the eyes of the ethnologist, who so far combines the
two methods, as to apply the test of language as well as
that of organization, and the test of organization as well
as that of language, these special classifications still con-
tinue to hold good; in other words, the philological and
anatomical classifications coincide.

THE UGRIAX STOCK. 31

Neither are they impaired when we add to the charac-
teristics, their habits, manners, customs, superstitions, and
intellectual aptitudes.

Under all aspects —

The Turks and Ugrians are closely allied classes.

On the other hand —

The Sarmatians belong to the so-called Caucasian class ;
that is, if we take the anatomist's view, and use the no-
menclature of Blumenbach —

And their language is what is called Indo-European ;
that is, its relations are with Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and
German — and (more remotely) with the Keltic.

Now, Caucasian is a term of equal generality with
Mongolian; Indo-European being equally general as a
term in philology. If so, the Turk and Sarmatian are
widely separated from each other.

They belong to two different orders; and this, whether
our classification be anatomical or philological.

These orders, moreover, are each of the highest value.
There is no group to which the Indo-European class has
been subordinated ; none to which the Caucasian.

What does this imply ? That somewhere between the
Turks and Sarmatians there is a broad line of demarcation
— of which the Ugrians he on the Turkish side. Now,
if mankind fell into Species rather than Varieties ; if the
lines of demarcation between such varieties were of the
broad and trenchant sort that the proper naturalist loves
to deal with ; and lastly, if ethnology were an old study
whereof the facts and principles had long been criticized
and ventilated, all this might be the case.

But it is not the case as it is.

32 THE TERM TARTAR.

In the mind of the present writer, the divisions and
demarcations are overdrawn. The philologist finds
Indo-European phenomena in the languages of Asia;
the anatomist, a Mongolian osteology amongst the
so-called Caucasians of Europe. Evidence of this will
be given in the forthcoming chapters. At present it is
sufficient to guard against the exaggeration of differences,
and to prepare ourselves for facts rather than names,
classifications, and opinions; names, classifications, and
opinions, embodied in such terms as Caucasian, Mon-
golian (as applied to a primary division of the human
species), and Indo-European. Common words, like Eu-
ropean, and Asiatic, or Oriental, will help us more.
We attach familiar meanings to them, though, without
perhaps, defining them. We know that the Pole is
more European than the Turk, the Turk more Asiatic
than the Pole; we know that as we move westwards
we find the nearest approaches to our own type, and
that we recede from this type as we go eastwards.
At present, this is sufficient.

Now, it is safe to say, that where the Sarmatian re-
cedes from the Ugrian he approaches the German, and
it is equally safe to say, that where the Ugrian recedes
from the Turk he approaches the Sarmatian.

There are three terms — Tungusian, Turanian, and Tar-
tar— that will help to explain this.

a, Tungusian is the name of a class which comprises,
along with the Mantshus who conquered China, a number
of less important tribes situated in the north-eastern parts
of Asia, in the Governments of Tobolsk and Irkutsk, on
the upper and middle parts of the Rivers Yenesey and

TARTAR CHARACTERISTICS. 33

Lena, and, more especially, on the drainage of the Amur,
kSaghalin, or Selinga River. It is a word of equal value
with Ugrian and Turk in the way of classification.

Mongolian is a word, in the way of classification, of
equal value with Tungusian, Turk, and Ugrian. It
means the tribes to the north-west of the wall of China —
the Mongolians of the Khalkas and the desert of Gobi ;
the Mongolians, in short, of Mongolia Proper — Mongolia
in the limited sense of the term.

b. The Mongolian, the Tungusian, the Turk, and the
Ugrian (along with another division not necessary to be
mentioned here), constitute an order called the Turanio n.

c. Two of our terms are thus explained. Now, in re-
spect to Tartar it has been stated, some pages back, that,
although the word was in many respects an inconvenient
term, it could still be made applicable for ethnological
purposes. Let it denote not the Turk stock alone — nor
yet the Mongolians alone — nor yet alone the class to
which the Mantshu conquerors of China belonged — but
the three collectively.

In habits, the Turks, Mongolians, and Mantshus are
certainly more like each other than even the Turks are
to the Ugrian. They are all eminently nomadic — so
long, at least, as they are limited to their original area.

This area was one of a uniform physical condition.
It spread over the steppes of Northern and Central Asia.
The Ugrian did so only partially.

In physical conformation they are alike, notwith- .
standing the extent to which some of the Turks are
Ugrian, and even European, in physiognomy. The
purest and most unmixed Turk tribes are essentially

C3

34 TARTAR CHARACTERISTICS.

Mongol in physiognomy ; so much so, that Mongol inter-
mixture has been assumed, in order to account for it —
most gratuitously, however.
The oreneral character of their histories is alike.
Their social organization is based upon the division
into tribes. It is tribual, so to say.

Now, if we may be said to have, in these points,
so many Tartar characteristics, the word becomes con-
venient ; and it suggests itself as a term descriptive of
the habits of the Turk, the Mongolian, and the Tun-
gusian, as opposed to the Ugrian, Turanians. It denotes
certain common characteristics in the way of habits, man-
ner of life, and history. But it is a word like Ea ropea a
or Asiatic, more convenient than strictly scientific. If
we look to the language, the Turk is as much Ugrian as
Mongolian.

However, the word enables us to predicate of the
Ugrians that, as a class, they are less Tartar-like than
the others. I find no one who has called them Tartars.
The Tibetans have been called so ; and that incon-
veniently ; but no Ugrian tribe. There is a reason for
this ; a reason that lies in their habits.

The system of tribes has no prominence amongst the
Ugrians.

The forest rather than the steppe is their hahitat — if
not the forest, the tundr".

In their physical conformation they exhibit this im-
. portant phenomenon. They are the first stock in the
direction from East to West, whereof the hah* is not al-
most exclusively black and the eyes black, also. This
may sound strange; because the thoroughly exceptional

THE UGRIAN STOCK. 35

character of white, brown, and red hair, with a fair com-
plexion to match, is not sufficiently recognized. Yet it
is only in Europe, and the Ugrian part of Asia, that they
occur. What is there white, red, or even brown in
Africa? What throughout the whole length and breadth
of America ? What in any island of Polynesia ? What in
Australia? What in Asia where it is other than Usrian?
There are no light-haired Turks; yet the Turk is the
stock nearest to the Ugrian. Not that the Ugrians are
blondes. Whole sections are dark rather than fair ; whole
sections fair rather than dark — this being also a point of
interest and importance.

In all this the Ugrian approaches the Sarmatian.

Few, if any, of the Ugrians are Mahometan; few, if any,
Buddhist. Some are still Pagans. The majority are Chris-
tians ; Lutherans, or Christians of the Greek Church, ac-
cording to the nation that has converted them ; the former
where the influence has been Swedish, the latter where
it has been Russian. In Hungary there are Roman
Catholics.

Some of the Ugrian languages are unwritten, some
written. Where the influences have been Russian, the
alphabet is Russian also. Otherwise it is German or
Swedish.

The early history of the Ugrian stock is liable to the
same complications as that of the Turks and Sarmatians.
For this reason it finds no place amongst our present
considerations.

36 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

CHAPTER II.

THE UGRIAN STOCK— TOMANS OF THE GOVERNMENT OF ST. PETERSBURG —

THE VOD — THE IZHOR THE AURAMOISET THE SAVAKOT — THE TSHUD

OF NOVOGOROD AND OLONETZ — THE TERM TSHUD — THE YAM.

The Ugrians of the map, with its commentary, before
us, are —

1. — The Samoyeds.

2.— The Laps.

3. — The Voguls.

-t. — The Finns falling into —

A. a. The Tshud.
6. TheVod.

c. The Esthonians.

d, The Liefs.

B. The Karelians —
'i. Auramoiset.

b. Savakot.

c. Izhor.

./. Karelians Proper.

THE UGRIAN STOCK. 37

5. — Permians.

a. Siranians.

b. Permians.

c. Votiaks.

d. Besermanians.
6. — Volga Finns.

a. Tsheremis.

b. Mordvin.

c. Tshuvash.

For these we have the statistics; i. e., the number of
the different divisions as distributed over the different
Governments. But the Duchy of Finland is not noticed
in the table ; although it is in the map. Neither are the
Ostiaks ; though they occur in the map also. This gives
us as additions to class 4 —

a. The Quains.

b. The Tavastrians.

It also gives us as a division next to the Voguls —

The Ostiaks.
Add to these the recent additions to the class (the Sa-
moyeds having already been enumerated), which are —

1. The Yeniseians, and

2. TheYukahiri;

and we have the details of the great Ugrian class as re-
presented by populations actually, and at the present
moment, in existence. The extinct, amalgamated, modi-
fied, and disguised tribes are another matter.

We are dealing with the ethnography of Russia ; so let
us begin with the parts that best represent Russia.
These are the parts between one of its present capitals
and one of its ancient ones — St. Petersburgh and Novo-
gorod. We may consider these words as the names of

38 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

either the Government or the Metropolis, just as we
may, in England, speak of either the town or the county
of Lincoln, Leicester, Hertford, &c. St. Petersburg is a
new city ; and Novogorod, as if in opposition to its name
(Xew-town), is an old one. It was for a long time the
chief terminal point of settlement to the Russians from
the South and AVest. It was also the starting point from
which more than one fresh conquest was effected. The
Government of Novogorod itself was once wholly Ugrian ;
but not within the historical period. It is partially so
now.

From Novogorod the Slavonian (Russian) intrusion
extended westwards, northwards, and eastwards — west-
wards in the direction of the Gulf of Finland ; north-
ward towards the Governments of Olonets and Archangel ;
eastwards towards those of Vologda and Permia. Its
goals seem to have been the two ports of St. Petersburg
and Archangel, and the mining districts of the Ural.

From Novogorod the Slavonic intrusion extended
westwards — westward in the direction of the Gulf of Fin-
land and the present City of St Petersburg. With what
Ugrian obstacles did it meet ? How far did it annihilate
them ? In case the annihilation was incomplete, what
remains of the original population still exist ?

The Ugrians of the Government of St. Petersburg fall
into five divisions, the number of each being as follows : —

1. Esthonians 7,736

2. Karelians 3,660

3. Auramoiset 29,344?

4. Savakot 42,979

5. Izhor 17,800

6. Yod 5,148

THE VOD. 39

Of these the first are outlyers from the neighbouring
Government of Esthonia, to which, ethnographically,
they belong. The Karelians are also referable to another
division ; i. e., the one which attains its fullest develop-
ment in Western Finland. The Auramoiset and Savakot
are more or less Finlandish in origin also. The Izhor
are, probably, indigenous — at least, in part. The Vod
are almost certainly indigenous.

The Vod (or Vot). — The Vod represent the aboriginal
Ugrians of the Government of St. Petersburg. The name
in the form before us is Russian. The Germans of Narva
call their district Watland, and the people Watlanders.
The native name — the name by which the people desig-
nate themselves — is TFatt-ialaiset or Wadd-ia\sdset, the
termination -laiset being- one that we shall meet with again.
It means men, population, tribe ; and, when attached to
other words, so as to form a plural, has much the same
power as the er in our words — Highland-er, British-er, &c.
It is truly Fin or Ugrian, and whenever we meet a
Gentile name in -laiset we may be sure that we have a Fin
or Ugrian gloss before us. So it is with -lainen, which
is the same word in the singular number.

The five thousand and odd Faflanders are limited to
a small tract on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, between
Cronstadt and Narva, so that they are the most western
of the St. Petersburg Ugrians. Yet their original area
was larger A.D. 1069. Wseslav, when Prince of Polotsk,
fought a bloody battle against them under the walls of
Novogorod, and defeated them with great carnage.
Here the account stands with the name Vod, unequico-
cally. Nestor, however, the earliest Russian annalist,

40 THE VOD.

mentions only Tshud and Narova; but as his language
for these parts is general, and as his information was not
of the most precise kind, it is likely that we have in his
pages the acts of the Watlanders under other names.
At any rate, the Ugrians of these parts appear under the
very earliest light of the dawn of Russian history. Then
we have the divisions of the ancient Novogorod,
which give the Votskaia Patina (i. e., the Vod Fifth),
just as, in the eyes of the old Norsemen, Northumberland
was " a fifth part of England," or, as in Yorkshire, we
talk of the Trithings (Ridings). The Swedes took up
this name, Russian as it was, and in a document of King
John III. (A.D. 1590) we find that he makes his son
•' Prince of Finland, Carelia, Watzkij-Pethin, and Inger-
manland, in Russia." Hence, at the time when the
Wattialaiset were numerous, there were two ethnological
divisions comprised in the present Government of St.
Petersburg — IFatf-land and /wgrer-mannland, Watskipe-
tin and Ingria. It is in the parishes of Kattila and Soik-
kina that the "Wattialaiset (by those who would visit
them in situ) are to be found. Their dialect is peculiar.
Some writers make it more Esthonian than Finlandish,
others more Finlandish than Esthonian. Sjogren con-
nects them with the Tshud of the Bieloserk, and,
through it, with the Yam and Tavastrian, a detail of
which the fuller illustration will be given in the sequel.

" Tunnet pajattaa Waiss" — this means "Speak you
Vod ?" Observe the form the word takes when it
appears (as it only does when it is applied to the language)
without the terminations -laiset, &c. Something will,
perhaps, come of this.

THE IZHOR. 41

The Izhor. — North of the Vod, and in contact
with them, lie The Izhor, as they are called by the
Russians, Ingri-kot as they call themselves. Observe the
termination hot This is the population from which the
Swedes and Germans get the name i"w/e?'-man-land ; in
Latin, Ingaria and Ingria ; Ingria, also, in English
geography. The Vod call the Izhor Karelians (Karja-
laiset), a point upon which Sjogren lays much stress,
inasmuch as it confirms his view of the difference
between them. The Izhor are the next oldest occupants
of St. Petersburg after the Vod. They are most numerous
on the Vod frontier, decreasing as you move northwards ;
decreasing, too, as time goes on. In the direction of the
Lake of Ladoga they were once numerous. They were
once numerous in the northern circles of the government.
Their dialects are numerous; on the Vod frontier like
the Vod, on the Auramoiset frontier like the Auramoiset.

The following is a Vod wedding-song, a translation of
a translation, and that a free one ; a free one in some-
thing like metre.* Like that of the old German popula-
tions, this consists in alliteration ; two or more words
within the same couplet beginning with the same letter.
To shew this I have given the original text : —

Neitsueni ainagoni !
Menet kaiwolle, kanani !

Wesitielle, wierakkoni !
Ala waad warjoa wetee!

Single, dear daughter-in-law !
Tkou goest to the spring

chicken !
The water-way, dear stranger !
Give way to the reflection on

the water,

* By Sjogren, Memoires de l'Academie de St. Petersbourg.
Serievi., Tom. ii., p. 151.

42

THE AURAMOISET.

Wesi wetab kaiuiu.

Meill on naised nagrajad;
Meill on cinainaad eliad.
Ala mene kurjosa kujalle !

Paapaikas parapi muita,
Korja muita korkaapi.
Neitsiiseni aniagoni !
Neitsiit aianagoanoni !

Ala tuskaa tuloa,
Kao katsche lahtego !
Emma j^annu pakasialle,

Emma wieniid wokkasuolle

Panimma poisile iiwalle.

For the water takes away thy

charms.
We have fair wives ;
We have fair meadows ;
Keep aloof from the house of

the flatterer ;
Bright is the cap of thy head,
Higher than that of all the rest.
Single, dear daughter-in-law !
Dear daughter-in-law, single

only !
Never may thy coming rue thee,
Never may thy journey trouble !
1 did not betrothe you to a

deserter,
Took you not over the mossy

moor,
But I gave you to the good

youth.

The Auramoiset. — The Auramoiset lie north of the
Izhor, on both sides of the Neva. Some of them extend
as far as the district of Yiborg, in the Duchy of Finland.
Turis, Duderhof, Ropscha, Ingris, Lusila, Valkiasaari,
Toksova, and Yoles, are the parishes in which they must
be sought. Keksholm is their northernmost point, AAra-
moiset and Auramoiset are the other forms of their name.

The Savakot. — The Savakot are closely allied to the
Auramoiset, being somewhat less rude ; the women, too,
wear a different sort of cap ; and this supplies the chief
distinction between them. They are mixed with the
Auramoiset in some of their localities ; with the Izhor in
the others ; the circles of St. Petersburg, Schliisselburg,
Sophia, Oranienbaum, Yamburg, and Narva, being their
chief seats.

THE AURAMOISET. 43

In A.D. 1623, the district of Agrepaa, in the depart-
ment of Viborg, the south-western province of Finland,
was ceded by the Russians to the Swedes, and along with
two others, namely Yeskis and Savolax. It is believed
that when this took place the ancestors of the Savokot
and Auramoiset migrated into their present localities.

Sjogren considers the affinities of the Savakot and
Auramoiset to be Karelian rather than Tavastrian.

If we now ask what parts of the Government of St.
Petersburg are the most Ugrian, we shall find them to
be those districts which lie between the sea and Lake
Ladoga; the parts nearest the capital itself. On the
other hand, the northern and southern portions are
Russian. The southern shore of the Lake Ladoga is
Russian. The parts between Novogorod and the Lake
Peipus are Russian. The parts between these two areas
are Ugrian. So that the Slavonic encroachments fol-
lowed the lines of the rivers Luga and Volkov, and the
Ugrian strongholds are the low lands along the side of
the sea. This is the distribution we expect.

The Tshud. — The yellow colouring on the map de-
notes the Izhor, the Auramoiset, and the Sawakot col-
lectively. Without distinguishing them from each other,
it distinguishes them from the Vod. The yellow with a
buff border — such is the colouring of the " Finns of the
Government of St. Petersburg."

In the governments of Novogorod and Olonets this
yellow colouring re-appears, but with a difference. The
bordering is red — the colour for the Vod. The name,
too, is changed. The yellow and red Ugrians of the
governments of Olonets and Novogorod are called Tshud,

44 THE TSHUD.

an important word, and one that requires explanation
and criticism.

Now, the meaning of the marking is this. The Izhor,
Auramoiset, and Savakot, are considered to be foreign to
their present localities — to have come thither from the
north, from Finland — from Karelian Finland, rather than
Tavastrian Finland, whereas the Vod are aboriginal.
More than this, it is considered that the nearest affinities
to these Vod are those of the Tshud, distant as they
are in geographical position. The chief evidence upon
this point lies in the similarity of dialect, and in the fact
of both bearing a relation to the same division of the
Finlanders — the Tavastrians. Sjogren suggested it as
early as A.D. '30 or '32, and it seems that the ethno-
grapher of the map before us had adopted it.

Now, Tshud is said to be the name by which the
Slavonic nations designated such other nations as were,
at one and the same time, other than Slavonic and
Ugrian. They are not said to call the Germans so ; in-
deed, the Germans they call Niemce. Nor yet do they
call the Turks so ; these are Tartars. Wherever, then, the
word Tshud is used, it is used by a Slavonian, and ap-
plied to an Ugrian. It is not known to the Ugrians them-
selves, and is anything but a complimentary designation.
It is much such a word as Barbaras in Greek and Latin,
only not applied so generally. It is also such a word as
Welsh in the English and German ; a word which is
applied to the Welshman of Wales, to the Italians of
Italy, and to the Walloons of Belgium, by the Germans of
their respective frontiers, and which is as little Walloon
as it is Welsh, and as little Welsh as it is Italian.

THE TSHUD. 45

This is the usual statement ; but it must be taken with
some reserve. I cannot find that all the Ugrians were
called Tshud. The Esthonians are not so called. The
Finlanders are not. It seems as if the name was given
more especially by the Russians of Novogorod to the
Ugrians of their immediate frontier ; at any rate, the
Ugrians under notice are pre-eminently Tshud, and as
Sjogren connects them with the Vod, he occasionally
allows himself to speak of the one as the Northern Tshud,
the other as the Southern Tshud. East and West would,
perhaps, have been the better adjectives. "What are the
relations between these Tshuds and a population called
Yam ?

A.D. 1042, Wladimir, son of Yaroslav, marched with
a mighty army out of Novogorod, against a popula-
tion called Fern, or Yam, and conquered them. He
lost, however, his horses through a murrain. After this
the Yam appear frequently in Russian history, and that
as a sturdy, brave people. Two elaborate papers of Sjo-
gren address themselves to the question — Who were the
Yam ? The answer is, that they were the ancestors of
the present Tshud of Olonets and Novogorod.

The Tshud have suffered much from encroachment,
more than the Ugrians of St. Petersburg. They lie,
we see, in patches, in islands. They have, too, other
Ugrians in contact with them, just as was the case with
the Vod. They lie, some on the banks of Lake Onega,
others in the circle of Bielosersk (the circle of the White
Lake). They he in Novogorod, as well as in Olonets.
When Sjogren described them, he carried their numbers
as high as 21,000. The present tables give for

40 THE TSHUD.

The Government of Nov ogorod ... 7,067
Olonets 8,560

Total 15,627

For themselves they have no special names ; they
have one, however, for their language. This they call
Luudin Kieli, the Luudin Speech. But Luudin is a
word that has not yet been explained. Then we have
in Nestor the name Vess, a name that has to be con-
sidered.

THE UGRIAN STOCK— THE SIRANIANS. 47

CHAPTER III.

THE UGRIAN STOCK CONTINUED — THE SIRANIANS — THE PERMIANS — THE
VOTIAKS — THE BESERJIANIANS.

The Siranians. — The Government of Vologda is Si-
ranian in the way that Olonetz and Novogorod are Tshud,
and St. Petersburg Ingrian; the Government of Vologda
and the water-system of the Upper Dwina, — the eminently
Siranian rivers being the Vytshegda, the Vym, and the
Syssola. Some Siranians, however, lie on the south side of
the watershed, on the Kama, Of this the River Syria is
a feeder, and it is on this that we find villages named
Syrianskoe, so that the name seems to have originated
on the southern frontier and on the water-system of
the Volga. In fact, the southern Siranian is a northern
Permian, and vice versa; the differences in dialect, man-
ners, and appearance, being but small. Originally, indeed,
there was no distinction between the two branches — none,
indeed, between any of the North-eastern Ugrians. The
same denomination expressed all.

48 THE SIRANIANS.

The Siranian language falls into four dialects; three
being pretty closely allied to each other, but the fourth
being an outlyer, much mixed up with the Samoyed;
consequently, this outlying dialect is the northern one.
Nevertheless, somewhat unfortunately for the philologue,
it was in the northern, outlying, and modified dialect of
the Siranian that the first attempts at a grammar were
made. This was Florow's, published in 1813, the dialect
being the Udorian — i. e., that for the parts about
Udorsk.

Since then, the Gospel of St. Matthew has been trans-
lated into the Ustsyssola dialect ; probably the purest of
the four. Yet, even here we have a great number of
Russian words. The other two forms of sj)eech, allied
(as aforesaid) to each other and to the Ustsyssola, are the
Siranian of the Upper Vytshegda, and the Siranian of
the Yaren.

The Siranians have long been converted to the Greek
Church ; being, along with the Permians, the first of the
Eastern Ugrians to whom the Gospel was preached.
Their apostle was St. Stephanus.

The name by which they are here described is foreign
to them and unknown. They call themselves, like the
Permians, Komi-uter, or Komi-murt; so that Siranian
is a Russian word.

Their country is one of the thickest forest districts of
Russia, and, in these, the Siranians live the lives of fo-
resters and huntsmen — sufficiently hardworking and
active, with a taste for making long rambles during the
hunting season, and with an average aptitude for trade
and industry. They nearly all speak Russian.

THE PERMIANS. 49

According to Schubert, their number was 30,000. The
tables before us run, —

Siranians of the Government of Archangel ... 6,958
Vologda 64,007

70,965

The Siranian Pater-noster is as follows: —

Bate mijan, kodii em nebessajas wiiliin ;

Med swatitsas nim tenad ;

Med woas tsarstwo tenad ;

Med loas wola tenad, kiidsi nebessa wiillin i mu wiiliin.

Nanj mijanlii potmon set mijanlii ta lun kesko ;

I enowt mijanlii udslijesjass mijanliissj,

Kiidsi i mi enowtalam asslaniim udshjesajaslii;

I en nuod mijanoss iilodom wiilo ; a widsj mijanoss lukawoijissi ;

Tenad wod em tsarstwo i wiin i slawa wiek kesho. — Aminj .

The Permians. — The Government of Permia, and the
water-system of the Kama, give the area of the Permian
group, which is separated from the Siranian more in con-
formity with common language than on the strength of
any essential differences. No such distinction occurs
amongst the older notices — the name Permian, being
the only one they supply ; a name including the Ugrians
of the Dwina and Petshora as well as those of the Kama
or Upper Volga; and it is in the Scandinavian writings
where it occurs most prominently. Biarmaland, or the
land of the Biarmas (Permians), was a robbing-ground
of the old Norse seamen. It was also an emporium for
their trade. It was Biarmaland with which they came in
contact on the White Sea; Biarmaland to which the

D

50 THE PEKMIANS.

parts about the present port of Archangel belonged. So
that it was visited from the West by sailors who had to
double the North Cape before they reached it.

The history of the Biarmaland trade is the commercial
history of the White Sea; just as the history of Finland
and Pomerania is that of the Baltic.

The Beonnas were known to the Anglo-Saxons, and
mention of them occurs in Other and Wulfstan's Voy-
ages. No nation of the North exceeded them in im-
portance ; and when we observe, that it is a country so far
south and so far inland as the present Government of Per-
mia which jDreserves their name, we get a measure of the
magnitude of the original Permian area — an area which,
as has been already stated, included the Siranians, and
the populations of the Petshora, perhaps, also, the
Votiaks.

Nevertheless, no enquirer has detected, amongst the
present Permians, any vestiges of their ancient importance
in the way of traditions or nationality. They all seem
unconscious of it. They know nothing of their ancient
renown ; they know nothing also of the distinction drawn
by the Russians between themselves and the Siranians ;
as little of the two names — Permian (or Permiak) and
Siranian. Like the latter people, they call themselves
Komi -murt or Komi -uter — murt meaning mowi.

Converted to the Greek Church in the latter half of
the fourteenth century, by the same St. Stephanus who
was the apostle to the Siranians, the Permians came be-
times in contact with the Russians. Yet, as long as the
mineral riches of their country remained undeveloped,
they preserved, to a great extent, their original character

THE VOTIAKS. 51

of huntsmen, fishers, foresters, and peltry-men. Herber-
stein says, that they paid a tribute of skins and neglected
agriculture. The Slavonic immigration, that arose out
of the mines, began in the beginning of the last century,
and it has been so encroaching and so influential that the
Permian population is, at the present moment, one of
the more fragmentary populations of Russia — fragmen-
tary and decreasing, at least in proportion to the Sla-
vonic. Schubert gives 35,000 as the number of the
Permians. The tables before us run —

Perrnians in the Government of Viatka... 4,599
Perm ... 47,605

52,204
The Votiaks. — The Siranians belong more especially
to the Government of Vologda and the water-system of
the Dwina ; the Permians to Permia and the Kama ; the
third member of the group, the Votiaks, to the Govern-
ment of Viatka and the river of the same name.

It is the Russians who call them Votiaks, the last two
syllables being derivative. So that the root is Vot. This
brings it near to the native designation, which is Udi,
the same as -uter in the Permian and Siranian names
Komi-uter. They compound this with the word murd,
meaning man (Permian and Siranian again), which gives
us the form Udmurt. So that —

The Votiaks are the Udi, or Ud-murt.

The Permians and )

_ „. . Y are the Komi-uter or Komi-murl

The Siranians )

This element murt, or, to speak more generally, this

root m -rt (or m -rd), is important, and will re-appear.

d 2

52 THE YOTIAKS.

Again, it must be remembered, that the name Vod or
Vot has already come before us in the ethnology of the
Government of St. Petersburg, and that the term for the
Vod language was Vess.

The Tsheremis use the form Odd, in speaking of
these same Votiaks, Ud-murt, or Udi — the same word.
The Turks call them Ari,

So that the name by which the Votiaks are designated
by themselves and others is pretty constant. Not so the
names they themselves give their neighbours. The Rus-
sians they call Dzhiis, or Dyutsh-mvrt, a word curiously,
though, perhaps, not accidentally, like the word Dutch
(Deutsch). The Turks are Viger — probably Bulga-
rians ; the Tsheremis, Pohr; the Tshuvash and the
Mordvins, Taulu.

Their country they call JLam-kosij) ; a word like
Doab in Indian ; Entre Bios in Portugueze ; and Inter-
amna in Latin. It means the country between the two
rivers — the Kama and the Viatka, Kama, too, is a
Votiak word.

This word Kosip is remarkable. Admit the proba-
bility of the Ugrians of Courland and Lithuania having
originally extended as far westwards as Pomerania, and
we have a probable explanation for the word Kassub
(Kaszeb), the name of a Slavonic population of the Ru-
genwalde district west of the Vistula; a name that has
never been satisfactorily explained.

Their language connects the Votiaks with the Per-
mians rather than with any other section of the Ugrians ;
yet there is a belief amongst some of them that they de-
scended from the north-west, from Finland Proper.

THE VOTIAKS. 53

Their physiognomy is Fin. Their name is like that of
the Ingrian Vod. Perhaps, the origin of the doctrine
lies herein. That they extended further southwards is
both probable a priori, and confirmed by the name of a
locality on the Kasanka. This is Axskoi Prigorod, the
Fortress of the Ari — i. e., of the Votiaks under their
Turk denomination. It was one of their last strongholds
against the Tartars; well defended, and exhibiting at the
present moment remains of its ancient defences.

No Ugrian isolates himself so much as the Votiak.
The Permians and Siranians generally can speak Russian,
though they maintain their own tongue. The Tshuvash
and Tsheremis, though they mix but little with the
Turks (Tartars) of the neighbourhood, and less with
the Slavonians, are not unsociable to each other. But
the Yotiak keeps exclusively to himself, mixing with the
Tsheremis of the parts around him as little as with the
Russian.

The Yotiak is liker the Finlander of Finland in personal
appearance than is the case with the generality of Ugrians ;
and as the Finlander of Finland is the strongest and
stoutest of his family, the Votiak form contrasts favourably
with that of the Tshuvash and Tsheremis. From these
they are said to be easily distinguished, as much, however,
by the hair as aught else. The Votiaks are the most red-
headed men in the world — fiery-red is the epithet.
Light, flaxen, or yellow, is also frequent ; and after this, the
darker shades of brown. The beard is reddish ; the skin
light. In temper, also, the Votiak resembles the Fin-
lander, being steady, sturdy, laborious, and agricultural
The Permian is a useful laborer in the mine ; the Sira-

54 THE VOTIAKS.

nian (if the chase can be called a form of useful industry)
in the forest; the Votiak in the field. The Votiak
accumulates property — saving, but hospitable. The
women weave, spin, and make felts.

The Votiak country lies within the range of the lime-
tree, and the lime-tree feeds the bee. So that the Votiaks
are great bee-herds, bee-breeders, or bee-masters — a term
of this kind being necessary for these parts. The Bashkirs
and other Siberian populations will be found with the
same habits. A Votiak may own some fifty bee-hives.

A Votiak village contains from twenty to forty houses,
larger than that of the Tsheremis, smaller than that of the
Tshuvash. It covers a clearance in the forest, the wood
being left in its natural condition on the boundary.
This isolates the Votiak villages, and they lie as the old Ger-
man ones did — with wastes and woodlands between them.
When the ground of a settlement has become exhausted
by cropping, the occupants leave it and migrate else-
where. Sometimes they make the old place over to
other settlers. In these vestiges of their ancient noma-
dism the Tsheremis agree with the Votiak. The
house is of wood, scarcely different from that of the Rus-
sian. Perhaps we should rather say that the Russian
house is like the Votiak — the style of building being, in
all probability, indigenous.

The men dress like the Russians, the women only pre-
serving the old Votiak costume. The material for their
cap is the white bark of the birch-tree, with a band of
blue linen bound round it, and adorned in the front with
silver ornaments — often coins. This fashion we shall find
amongst the Tshuvashes — the fashion, I mean, of using

THE VOTIAKS. 55

pieces of money as decorations. Then there are
streamers of white linen flowing and floating over the back
and shoulders, with red fringes and embroidery along the
borders. This head-dress is the aishon. If a stranger
sleep in the house, the aishon will be worn all night as
well as all day, since it is decorous to keep the head
covered, indecorous to let down the hair. The shirts
and shifts, too, are more or less embroidered. The tribual
organization, so characteristic of the Turk stock, appears
in a modified form amongst the Votiaks, who are
specially stated to "retain their original division into
tribes and families, and to give the names of these to their
villages. Their noble families, however, are, for the
most part, extinct." How like this village organization
is to that of the early Germans, may be seen by comparing
these notices with Kemble's account of the old English
Mark, with its villages ending in -ing, like Mai-
ling, Marling, &c. In these the -ing is a kind of patro-
nymic, or, at least, a Gentile affix ; so that (e. g.) Mailing
is the settlement of the Mailings, or Mallingas — the
population giving the name to the settlement, that name
being more or less a family one.

At the end of the last century the number of Votiaks
was no more than about 40,000.

The tables before us run —

Votiaks in the Government of Viatka 181,270

Kazan 5,500

Orenburg. . ?

District of Samar ?

186,770

56 THE V0T1AKS.

They pay a capitation-tax, either in money or peltry ;
but beyond this, are left to themselves, having, like the
Tsheremis and the Tshuvash, their own elders, arbi-
trators, umpires, judges, or head men, for the settlement
of disputes, and for the other details of village govern-
ment. In the time of their independence this organi-
zation must have been more complex. Instead of the
Russian official — the Sodnick or head of a certain number
of villages — there would have been the native nobles.

The Permians and Siranians were converted as early
as the fourteenth century, so that their Christianity is as
independent in its growth as that of the Russians them-
selves. That of the Votiaks is recent, inchoate, and
imperfect; derived from that of the Russians of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In many cases it
goes no further than the rite of baptism. We have
seen the extent to which the Yotiaks keep isolate. It
tells on their religion as well as on their habits.
In many localities we can find pure and unmodified cases
of Paganism ; in only a few, an equally unmodified Chris-
tianity. The old religion shews through the new — and
that generally.

The parts about Glasov are the great Votiak localities.
They are, also, the parts where Paganism is the rifest.
The chief deity is Juman (the Finlandish Jumala),
whose dwelling-place is the sun. Then come the Tasa-
Buss and the Urom-Buss, the Good deity and the Bad
deity ; the Bad residing in the water. To these they
make solemn sacrifices at stated places — consecrated
spots in the deeper parts of the forest — not seldomer
than three times a-year ; first, when the sowing time

THE VOTIAKS. 57

concludes ; next, when the hay-harvest is over ; thirdly,
at the harvest home in autumn, when the corn is got in.
These last several days ; milk, honey, sheep, geese, and
ducks, being the chief offerings. They pray a prayer,
burn a portion of the offering, and spread a portion of it
over the altar. The priest is called Tona ; the conse-
crated ground for the offering, Keremets (the name
we shall find when we get to the Tsheremis and
Tshuvash); the festival, Nunal. Of these Nunals, the
Keremet Nunal is the greatest. Then it is that a horse
is sacrificed, a chestnut horse if possible, but never a
black one. His fat is burnt, his hide taken home, his
skull raised on a tree and left to bleach. In praying,
the priest looks towards neither the rising sun nor the
setting, but towards the sun at noon. This consecration of
the horse's skull re-appears on the shores of the Baltic. It
is also Scandinavian, but not, on that account, necessarily
Norse, i. e., German.

Then there is the worship of little household gods,
called Modor.

A few of the Votiaks are. Mahometans.

The language of the Votiak varies with the locality.
Next to Glasov, the chief Votiak circles are those of
Malmysh, Yelabuga, and Sarapul. Now, the Gospel of
St. Matthew has been translated in+o the Yelabuga ; that
of St. Mark into the Glasov, Votiak. In the Glasov
there is but little intermixture of Tartar ; in the Yela-
buga there is much. Many of the Votiak speak Turkish
as well as their own language, chiefly those in Kazan,
and on the Kazan frontier. In the library of the Bible
Society at Viatka is a translation of all the four Gospels,

D 3

58 THE VOTIAKS.

except a portion of St. Luke. It is only a portion, how-
ever, that has been printed.

The Votiak language is Permian, or Siranian, rather
than Tsheremis. At the same time it has several
Tsheremis characters.

The Besermanians. — Number in the Government of
Viatka, 4,545.

I have seen no good account of this section of the
Ugrians. They are, probably, but little different from
the Votiaks.

THE ESTHONIANS. 59

CHAPTER IV.

TITE UGRIAN STOCK CONTINUED THE ESTHOIJIANS.

We have taken Novogorod as a starting point and ob-
served the lines in which the Slavonic population ex-
tended itself at the expense of the Ugrian. We have
seen that it spread in all directions. Northwards, we
have followed it in that of Olonetz and Archangel ; East-
wards, in that of Viatka and Perm.

We are now about to follow it westwards; westwards
in the direction of Lithuania, Poland, Prussia, Esthonia,
Livonia, and Courland — the Baltic Provinces of Russia,
the German Provinces of Russia, as they are also called.

The Vod lead us towards the Esthonians.

It is still the fate of the Ugrians to be compressed be-
tween two forces — sometimes more than two. With
the Esthonians and Liefs, the Germans take the place of
the Turks. They it is who move eastwards, to meet, as
it were, the Slavonic intruders from the East. So that
Livonia and Esthonia are battle-fields between two
stocks; the real occupants belonging to a third.

60 THE ESTHOXIANS.

But there are more than two parties to these conflicts.
There is an encroachment from the South as well. More
than this, there is an encroachment from the North. Let
us look at the four frontiers of Esthonia and Livonia.

There is Russia on the East — Slavonic.

There is Germany on the West — Teutonic or German.

There is Lithuania on the South; and, although there
is the Sea on the North, there is beyond the Sea —

Scandinavia, i. e., Sweden and Norway; Sweden more
especially.

Of Finland we take but little cognizance.

From every one of these four quarters were Esthonia
and Livonia encroached upon; sometimes within the his-
torical period, sometimes in the darker days which pre-
ceded it.

At present, the most western locality of any of the
Ugrians is in Courland. In Livonia they are numerous;
but in Courland they exist only as a fragment. Yet
these same Ugrians of Courland are precisely those from
which the province in which they are found does not
take its name, and those from which the province in
which they are not found does. The Ugrians of Cour-
land are not Cours, as the name of the duchy — the land of
the Cours — suggests ; though a population so called once
existed, the Curonenses of Dusburg, the Curones of
Henry the Let, the Curl and Curetes of Saxo Grarnma-
ticus, the Kors of Nestor. As early as the tenth century
these Cours fought against the Swedes, being "gens crude-
lissima quae propter nimium idololatnae cultum fugitur ab
omnibus." (Adam of Bremen, De Situ Daakv, c. 223.)
He continues— "divinis, auguribus, atque necromanticis

THE LIEFS. 61

omnes domus sunt plense, qui etiam vestitu monachico in-
duti sunt. A toto orbe ibi responsa petuntur, maxime
ab Hispani et Graecis (v. Zeuss on v Cur ones).

No such a population under the name of Cour now
exists.

Next to the Curi came the Lami, or Lcemonii, of the
terra Lamotina. This is the name that does exist. The
terra Lamotina is Livonia; the Lami, the Livonians.
It is best to call them Liefs— since the German name
Lief-\zmd is far more convenient than our own Latin, or
would-be Latin, designation. Nestor's form Lib' re-
moves such doubts as may arise about the change from
-m- to -*>. He places them next but one to the Kors
or Curi.

Certain Liefs exist, but only twenty-two of them in
Liefland. The majority is found on the Livonian fron-
tier of Courland, in a strip of sea-coast. (See map.) But
even this majority is a small one; inasmuch as the whole
number of Liefs is —

In Liefland (Livonia) 22

Courland 2,052

These are a poor and rude population of fishermen.
Nevertheless, they are the descendants of men who gave
a name to a province. They are also, I think, descen-
dants of the Lemovii mentioned by Tacitus.

Their language is Ugrian — a form of the Esthonian.

I assume that they are in situ. If so, the whole
southern half of Zie/-land, which is no longer the land
of the Liefs, but of the Lets, (which is a Zealand so to
say,) contains a language foreign to its soil. In the
northern half of Lief-land the Ugrians re-appear. This

62 THE LIEFS.

tells a tale of encroachment by the Lets ; for the Cour-
landers as well as the southern Lief-landers (or Livonians)
are Let. The following tables, giving the proportions of
the Ugrian and Lithuanic populations in three Govern-
ments, shew the line in which the disturbing forces
have operated.

I.

In Liefland there are 355,238

__ . rEsthonians 355,216

UgnanS { Liefs 22

Lithuanians — Lets 318,872

II.

In Courland —

Ugrians — Liefs 2,052

. (-Lets 401,939

Lithuanians 1 T .x1 . „ iCtA

I Lithuanians 7,434

408,373

III.
In Lithuania —

a. In Vilna —

Lithuanians 138,320

Ugrians 0

b. In Grodno —

Lithuanians 2,338

Ugrians 0

c. In Kovno —

. f Lithuanians 568,794

Lithuanians i T „ _ . .,

I Lets 6,341

575,135

Ugrians 0

THE ESTHONIANS. 63

The Lithuanians from Vilna, Grodno, and Kovno, have
encroached upon the Ugrians of Lief-lsmd, and part (at
least) of Courland — chiefly, however, in the times ante-
rior to history ; so that the fact is got at from induction
rather than testimony.

But the Lithuanians themselves are encroached on.
By whom ? By the Russians. This, however, is from
the east. What is their condition in the west ? They
are pressed upon in this direction also. By whom?
The Germans. This, however, belongs to the ethnology
of the Sarmatians rather than the Ugrians.

Then there are the Swedes. These, like the Germans,
may stand over for a while.

No wonder that the Liefs are isolated. There has
been pressure in four opposite directions.

The Esihonians. — If Livonia be a term more inconve-
nient than Licf-\and, the equally would-be Latin word
Esthonia is less manageable than East-land or Esth-land,
the German and Scandinavian form. It means the
Eastern land — neither more nor less; and the Esthen
are its occupants. At the present moment this name is
German, though the population to which it applies is
Ugrian ; Courland and Lief-Iand being just as German
in name, and just as little German in blood. So that
the country of both a Lithuanian and Ugrian population
is known to the rest of Europe by a name given by
Germans. Facts of this sort are of the commonest ; and
less would be said about the present instances did they
not serve as a measure of the German influence — com-
mercial, political, or both — in the Baltic. In this, however,

64? THE ANCIENT .ESTYL

there is something irregular. The current name of the sea
itself is other than German, inasmuch as Baltic is no Ger-
man word. The names, too, of several of its divisions are
other than German ; e. g., Sleeve, and Kattegat, and, I
believe, Belt Yet the three most distant provinces of
its southern side are known to the rest of Europe by Ger-
man names exclusively. Even in the map before us,
Russian as it is, these German names are the ones in
use — Kurland, Lifland, Estlyand.

Now, just as names for certain shores of the Baltic
Sea are German in the nineteenth century, they were
also German in the ninth. They were German earlier.
They were German when Tacitus wrote, in the second
century of our era, and they were German in the third
century B. C. The eastern parts were then, as now,
named from their relations to the rising sun, and it Was
Germans who told the informants of Tacitus and Pytheas
of Marseilles what the names were. The former of
these writers speaks of the Osti isei ('Ooratot); the
latter of the JEst -yii.

But East may mean two things. It may mean the
Gulph of Finland and the parts about St. Petersburg, or
it may mean Courland and the parts about Memel ; these
latter being as truly an Eastern boundary as the former.
See how the coast turns suddenly, and how it changes, from
west and east, to south and north. This was the East-
land of the Ost-issi, or jEst-yn, as is shewn by what
is said of them. They were occupants of the amber-
country, or East Prussia

They were not, then, the ancestors of the Esthonians

THE SITONES. 65

of the present century, though many good writers de-
scribe them as such, overlooking the fact that the
country called the East has receded as our geogra-
phical knowledge has advanced, — just as in England the
name North-umberland has receded. It means the
parts beyond the Humber; but not all of them. It does
not now include Yorkshire. It did in the times before
the Conquest. Mutatis mutandis, this is the case with
the East-\a,nd or Esthonia. It now denotes East Prussia,
Courland, and Livonia, as little as the word Northumber-
land denotes the East, West, and North Ridings of the
county most immediate to the North of the Humber.

It was at some time between the ninth and twelfth
centuries that this limitation of the word East, to the
present Esthonia,, took place; a change of power that
probably rose out of the growth of the name Curi and
Cur ones. The East-land of King Alfred lies as far west
as the Vistula. The Est-la,nd of Adam of Bremen lies
East of Curland — an island in his eyes "maxima ilia in-
sula quae Curland dicitur." — Be Situ Daniw, c. 223.

The ancestors of the Esthonians were one of the "na-
tions of the Sitones " (Sitonum gentes) so contemptuously
spoken of by Tacitus: "Suionibus Sitonum gentes con
tinuantur. Cetera similes, uno differunt, quod femina
dominatur : in tantum non modo a libertate, sed etiam a
servitute degenerant. Hie Sue vise finis." — Germ. 45.

The name by which the Esthonian designates himself
is Rahivas. His land is M a-rahwas ; ma meaning land.
And this is the case whichever of the two Governments
of Zie/-land or Esthonia he belongs to. His numbers
are —

66 THE ESTHONIANS.

In Liefland 355,216

Esthonia 252,608

Vitepsk 9,936

Pskov 8,000

St Petersburg 7,736

633,496

The Rahwas still retain so much of Liefland as to
preponderate over the Let. Liefland, too, contains more
Rahwas than does Esthonia.

Number of Lets in Livonia 31 1,872

Rahwas 355,216

The River Salis and the parts about Valk form the
boundary ; the Rahwas lie north, the Lets south of it

Of the other Ugrian tongues the Vod and the Fin-
landish of Finland nearest approach the Esthonian;
which falls into two main dialects — that for the country
round Dorpt, and that for the country round Reval.

The political history of Esthonia is that of Livonia ;
with a few differences of detail. Both, so far as they are
neither Ugrian nor Lithuanian, are German; after this,
Swedish; after this, Russian. Of the two, Esthonia is
the more Swedish, the more Russian also ; Livonia, the
more German.

Both took their conquerors from Germany, their con-
querors and lords of the soil; both, their Christianity.
The influence of Sweden determined them both to the
doctrine of the Reformation ; for we are now amongst the
Lutheran Ugrians as opposed to the Ugrians of the Greek
Church. A common form of feudalism oppresses both
Esthonia and Livonia, — Courland too. In short, the
Ugrian here, and the Lithuanian everywhere, is a serf.

THE FINLANDERS. 67

CHAPTER V.

THE UGRIAN STOCK CONTINUED — THE FINLANDERS OP THE GRAND DUCHY OF

FINLAND TAVASTRIANS — EARELIANS — QUAIN8 THE SWEDES OF THE

ESTHONIAN ISLANDS.

The chief disturbing influence that has acted upon the
Rahwas of Esthonia and Livonia, within the historical
period, has been German. In the Grand Duchy of Fin-
land it has been Swedish. What the Knights of the
Teutonic Order — the Knights of the Sword — did for the
Baltic Provinces, the Swedish King St. Eric and his suc-
cessors did for the Finlanders. In the earliest Scandi-
navian Sagas we hear of friendly and unfriendly inter-
course between Sweden and Finland. We hear of Fins
even earlier than this. Tacitus speaks of them. Pliny
speaks of them. Ptolemy speaks of them. Procopius
and Jornandes speak of the Scrithifinni. The Fins
appear on the very limits of the northern world ; the
Scrithifinni in Scandinavia (Norway and Sweden), the
Fenni in the parts beyond Germania and Sarmatia. They
appear to the east of the former area, to the north of the
latter. I think that the views of the ancient geogra-
phers about their Fenni must have been as follows : —

68 THE ANCIENT FENNI.

By moving from west to east along the course of the
Danube, they reached the comitry of the Peucini ; i. e., the
islands at the mouth of that river.

By following the Baltic in the same direction, they
came to the country of the Fenni.

Between these two extremes, north of the Peucini and
south of the Fenni, lay the land of the Veneti, a vast
country full of woods and mountains, and occupied by
predatory tribes. This was but imperfectly known, and
its area was considerably underrated. At the same
time the difference between the Fenni and the Veneti
was known. So was that between the Veneti and the
Germans, and the Fenni and the Germans. It was also
known that at either the northern or the eastern end of
the Baltic were Fins.

But it is by no means certain that this meant the Fin-
landers of Finland, the ancestors of whom were probably
Sitonian ; i. e., one of the Sitonum gentes mentioned in
the last chapter. If so, and if the old Hahwas belonged
to the same class, the description of the Sitones is the
description of the Ugrians of the Gulphs of Finland and
Bothnia, and that of the Fenni the description of some
other population.

I imagine this to have been the case, and hold the
Fenni of Tacitus to have meant the Laps: — '• Fennis
mira feritas, foeda paupertas ; non arma, non equi, non
Penates ; victui herba, vestitui pelles, cubile humus.
Sola in sagittis spes, quas, inopia ferri, ossibus asperant
Idemque venatus viros pariter ac feminas alit. Passim
enim comitantur, partemque prgedae petunt. Nee aliud
infantibus ferarum imbriumque suftugium, quam ut in

THE ANCIENT FENNI. 69

aliquo ramorum nexu contegantur ; hue redeunt juvenes,
hoc senum receptaculum. Sed beatius arbitrantur, quam
ingeniere agris ; illaborare domibus; suas alienasque
foi*tunas spe metuque versare. Securi adversus homines,
securi adversus Deos, rem difficillimam assecuti sunt, ut
illis ne toto quidem opus esset.'" — Germ. 46.

The text of Tacitus separates these from the Sitones.
But why should the Sitones be Finlanders ? Because
they are said to have been ruled by a woman. Was this
a fact ? No. Was it a misstatement ? Yes. Of what
sort ? It was a misstatement that might easily arise
out of the name of a portion of the population of Fin-
land in the mouth of a Scandinavian informant. The
Finlanders of East Bothnia call themselves Kainu-
laiset, in the singular number Kainu-\&me. The Latin
form of the root Kain is Cajania ; the old Norse, Kcenir
and Kvcenir. As early as the time of Alfred the
Norse name was sufficiently current to have found its
way into the Anglo-Saxon writings of that royal geogra-
pher, and Finland is the land of the Cvenas, or Cvena-
land. But qvinna is Swedish for a woman, the same
word as the English queen and quean, different in
their degrees of courtesy as the two words are. Now,
it is by no means improbable that when a nation of
Cvenas was heard of, a nation of women (qvinnas) would
be suggested. Out of this would come a nation " ruled
by a woman" {queen or quean).

This confusion is not merely a likelihood ; it is, in
three parts out of four, a fact. The land of the Sitones,
over which the informants of Tacitus are satisfied with
making a woman a ruler, becomes, when we get to Adam

70 THE SITONES — THE TAVASTRIANS.

of Bremen, a land of Amazons — " hsec quidem insula"
(Estland) " terrse feminarum proxima narratur."

Again — "circa hsec littora Baltici maris ferunt esse
Amazonas, quod nunc terra feminarum dicitur, quas

aquae gustu aliqui dicunt concipere Hae simul

viventes, spernunt consortia virorum, quos etiam, si adve-
nerint, a se viriliter repellunt." c. 228.

Such is the history of a blunder ; of which there are
many to mislead the ethnologist.

At the present moment the Norwegians call the Lap-
landers, Finis; the Finlanders, Quains.

The map before us recognizes the Quains. They are
the Finlanders of East Bothnia.

Quain is one of the three divisions into which the
population of the Grand Duchy of Finland is divided ; or,
rather, is the name of a subdivision.

The two primary divisions are founded upon the diffe-
rences of dialect. There are —

1. The Tavastrian, and

2. The Karelian.

The Quains are a branch of the Tavastrians; at any
rate, they are more Tavastrian than Karelian.

1. The Tavastrians. — The drainage of the rivers that
empty themselves into the Gulphs of Finland and Bothnia
gives us the area of the Tavastrians. But as all these rivers
are short, and run from elevations by no means distant
from the sea, the Tavastrian area (including that of the
Quains) extends no great distance inland as compared with
the Karelian Tavaste-hus itself lies in the south of Fin-
land, on the range that rises north of the Gulph, just north
of the Government of Viborg. Some, however, of the most

THE KAHELIANS. 71

favoured parts of the Duchy are Tavastrian ; and as the
Tavastrians of the parts about Tavaste-hus occupy a
locality favourable for defence, it was one of the last parts of
Finland to be conquered, and the first to rebel. Both the
conquest and reaction, however, are more than 800 years
old.

The Tavastrians call themselves Hamalaiset, in the
singular number Hamalaine; and as the first syllable of
these words is nearly identical with the name of the Yam
of Novogorod, it has been suggested that they originated
in the parts about the Lake Onega. A difference of
dialect is the chief characteristic of the Tavastrians, or
Hamalaiset, as opposed to —

2. The Karelians or Kirialaiset. — The great block of
land, more or less square in outline, and coinciding in
respect to its physical geography with the table-land of
the Duchy, is the area of the Karelians. Here the sur-
face of the earth lies high, and the rivers empty them-
selves into innumerable lakes, rather than directly into
the sea. The climate, too, is more continental than that
of the sea-board. " Cor alii " (Karelians) "gens paganorum
ferocissima, carnibus crudis utens pro cibo " live here.

As the Yam were Tavastrian rather than Karelian,
the Savakot and Auramoiset were Karelian rather than
Tavastrian. Again, the isolate and sporadic Tshud of
the Waldai range in the Governments of Tver, Yaroslav,
and Novogorod, are called Kargelane or Karelian. I
presume because their real affinities are such. At the
same time I do not profess to have seized very clearly the
exact import of the distinction between the two branches.
I only know that the best authorities seem to lay a good

72 THE FINLANDERS.

deal of stress upon it. Even so do some of our English
philosophers insist upon the difference between the Angle
and the Saxon parts of our own island; whilst classical
scholars do the same with the dialects of the Greek Yet
there is less in them than such philologues imagine.

The Finlanders are yellow-haired and brown-haired,
rather than black-haired ; with grey eyes. In colour they
are swarthy, rather than brunette; and light com-
plexioned, rather than swarthy. The skull belongs to the
brachy-cephalic (short-headed) class of Retzius, i. e., the
class where the diameter from the forehead to the occiput
is not so much longer than the diameter from side to side,
as it is with the Swedes, the Africans, and the so-called
dolicho-cephalic (long-headed) populations. Indeed, the
Fin organization has generally been recognized as Mon-
gol— though Mongol of the modified kind. The stature
is moderate ; the limbs of average strength and vigour.
These characters we have seen already amongst the other
populations ; as we have the moral and mental ones. No
great mobility of temper has been met with ; nor will it
be. The Finlander is sturdy-tempered and churlish,
rather than polite, in manners ; not inhospitable, but not
over-easy of access; no friend of new fashions. Steady,
careful, and laborious, he is valuable in the mine ; valuable
in the field; valuable aboard-ship; and, withal, a brave
soldier on land. In the more than creditable — the glo-
rious— wars of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII., the
Fin regiments played a conspicuous part.

The Finlanders and the Esthonians are the first
Ugrians we have found in possession of a sea-board. For
practical purposes, they will be last ; the Laps, Samoyeds,

THE FINLANDERS. 73

and Ostiaks being in contact with the Arctic Ocean only.
They are the first, too, who have come in contact with
Europeans more civilized than the Muscovite ; with the
Swede and the German. So that they represent the civili-
zation of their stock. Herein, the Finlander has the prece-
dence. He has lived a life of national freedom; united
with the Swede, rather than subject to him. His civili-
zation is that of Western rather than Eastern Europe.
His alphabet is Swedish and Roman, not Russian and
Greek ; his creed, Lutheran ; though there are a few Roman
Catholics, and a smaller number of the Greek Church
Christians. In the way of intellectual development,
Finland stands to Sweden much as Spain and Gaul did
to Rome. It has contributed its fair share to the literary
credit of the two united countries. On the other hand,
the medium has been the Swedish.

There is, however, a proper Fin literature as well ; but
it bears the same relation to the Swedish that the Welsh
does to the English. It will be noticed more at length
hereafter.

In more matters than one, the ancient Paganism
shews itself through the newer Christianity with the
Finlanders and Esthonians more than with any other
people of Europe — in other words, their Christianity is
the least untinctured with the primitive Heathenism.
But the mythology of the Fins will form the subject of
a separate chapter.

There is Heathenism, and plenty of it, in the Fin
poems — the Runes, as they are called. There is
Heathenism, too, and plenty of it, in their every-day
life. So is there in that of the Esthonians. The

E

74) THE FINLANDEES.

Northern Finlander is a wizard in the eyes of the Southern ;
the Laplander, a wizard in the eyes of both. There is
also — and this is the case with the Laps and Swedes —
an extraordinary susceptibility to the influences of reli-
gious excitement.

Finland alone contains about half of the whole Ugrian
stock, its present Fin population being about a milllion
and a half.

There are Finlanders out of Finland ; and there are
Laps beyond the pale of Russian Lapland. With the
exception of the Majiars of Hungary, this is the case
with no other Ugrian population. All he within the
realm of Muscovy. But there are Fins in Sweden, and
Fins (Quains as we must there call them) in Norway.
Sometimes they have got thither as settled colonists.
Such is the case with the Quains of Finskogen (the
Fms-shavj or F'ms-icood) in the parishes of Trysild and
Grue, in the districts of Soloers, between Norway and
Sweden ; oftener, however, there has been a mere
extension of frontier. As this is from south to north, and
as the more northern parts of Scandinavia are Lap, it is
the Laplander that is thus encroached on. This is done
in Russian Lapland — in Swedish Lapmark — in Norwe-
gian Finmark. The cow goes with the Fin, the rein-
deer with the Laplander ; and as the former displaces the
latter, agriculture encroaches on nomadism. Then, there
are intermixtures of blood, to the advantage of the Laps.
But the Norwegian and the Swede find a rival in the
Finlander, even as the Lap does — even as the English
labourer finds one in the Irish. Quain labour is almost
essential to the mining industry in the north of Norway.

SWEDES OF THE ESTHONIAN ISLANDS. 75

A taste for song and music, the use of the steam-
bath, and a large amount of superstition, characterize the
Finlander and the Esthonian.

In respect to the ethnology, it is safe to say that the Es-
thonian is in situ, i. e., that he is indigenous to Esthonia.
No earlier population seems to have preceded him. Not so
with the Finlander. For the northern portion of his area,
at least, he is generally and reasonably considered to be an
intruder — a population akin to the Lap has been the pri-
mitive occupant. If so, his direction has been from south
to north.

The native name for the Tavastrians and Karelians, —
Hamalaiset and Kirialaiset — collectively, is Suomalaiset ;
from whence suoma, marsh or fen; Suomalaiset, the
people of the marsh, swamp.

Sivedes of the Esthonian Islands. — Just as the towns
in the Principality of Wales are more or less English, the
towns of Finland are more or less Swedish ; indeed, the
sea-board altogether is in the same category. The whole
of the Aland Archipelago is also Swedish. Though, politi-
cally, it was a part of Finland in 1819, it now belongs to
Russia. How long it may remain so is another question.
Aland, however, is as truly a part of Sweden as the Isle of
"Wight is of England. The Quain population is represented
in the census before me by a cipher. It is not, however,
such Swede elements as these that I notice, but the Swedes
of the Esthonian Islands — the Island-Swedes (Osvens-
kar) the free Swedish yeomen (fria Svenska bondar), as
they are called.

In Odensholm they form the whole population. Here
no Esthonian finds a resting-place to the sole of his foot,

E 2

76 SWEDES OF THE ESTHONIAN ISLANDS.

and (what is better) no German lord rules over a popula-
tion of serfs. The land and the industry are free. In
the other isles this freedom is less perfect, and the Swedish
blood less exclusively pure. In all, however, the Swedish
language, in welh-marked dialects, is spoken, and Swedish
manners prevail. The date of these Swedish settlements
is uncertain. They are earlier, however, than the 14th
century.

As the population is isolated, several old customs, missing
in modern Sweden, live amongst them — old customs, old
words, old superstitions. Fishing and pilotage are the
chief employments. The Esthonian Islands are their
chief localities. There are some, however, on the conti-
nent, and a few in Liefland — e. g.,

Swedes in Esthonia 4,714

Liefland 425

Courland 7

5,146
To these add, from a distant locality, 168 more. In the
Government of Kherson are four small villages ; settle-
ments made during the last century from these same
Esthonian Swedish islands. There are 6,156 other
Swedes in the Government of St. Petersburg, but I
imagine that these are newer settlers than the Osvenskar
or Fria Svenskar bondar.

Finland became Russian in 1809. The Government,
however, of Yiborg was lost to the Swedes, and won to
the Russians, in the reign of Peter the Great.

THE SABME. 77

CHAPTEE VI.

THE tJGRIAN STOCK CONTINUED — THE SABME OK LAPS — THE NAME, HABITS,
AND RELIGION ORIGINAL AREA.

The best name, for the purposes of steady investigation,
by which we should denote the Lap, Laplandish, Lap-
ponic, or Lapponian family, is Sabme or Sami, inasmuch
as it is the name by which they designate themselves.
It is the native name ; it is the only native one. The
other is foreign — Swedish or Russian, as the case may
be. When a Swede talks of a Sabme, he calls him a
Lap; when a Russian does so, he says Lopari.
Hence their country of hasp-land and the frontier
of it that faces Sweden is Lap-mar/v, or the March
of the Laps. There is nothing very inconvenient
in this. That Sabine (and not Lap) is the native
name, and that Lap or Lopari (and not Sabme) are
Swedish and Russian designations, is no difficult matter
to remember ; neither is it important if forgotten or
overlooked. But the Sabme of Sweden or Russia are
not the only Sabme. There is a large proportion of
the family in Norway ; in the most northern part of
Norway, in Fin-mark, or the March of the Fins ; in
Fin-mark, a very different compound from Fin-land.
What is the import of this name ? The population of

78 THE SABME,

Finmark is not that of the Grand Duchy of Finland. It
is Lap or Sabme. Yet the name Lap, so familiar to the
Swede and Russian, is unfamiliar to the Norwegian. In
the eyes of the Norwegian a Sabme is a Fin, and his
country Fi /t-mark ; so that Finmark in Norway is the
the same as Lapmark in Sweden. Throughout Norway,
if you talk of Lapland you must say Finmark ; if you
talk of a Lap you must make him a Fin. To do other-
wise is to talk Swedish. But this tends to confusion,
inasmuch as the Finlanders of Finland may have to be
mentioned. Avoiding this, the Norwegian calls them
Quains. Hence a Swedish Lap is a Norwegian Fin, and
a Swedish Finlander is a Norwegian Quain, whilst the Lap
populations distributed over Norway, Sweden, and Russia,
are Fins, Laps, and Lopari. The conditions, however,
under which they occur are much the same throughout.
The most southern of them are found in Sweden ; the
most northern, in Norway. The mountaineer branches of
them are, also, more Scandinavian (Swedish or Norwe-
gian) than Russian. For the most northern population
of Europe their area is favoured in respect to climate ;
no part of the world equally arctic being so warm — or,
rather, so little cold. It is only when we approach the
North Cape that we get beyond the region of trees — the
birch being found as high as N. L. 70-71 ; the Scotch
fir up to 69-70 ; and the Spruce fir to 67. The
elm, lime, oak, hazel, and alder have, however, long been
passed ; so has the latitude at which fruit ripens. On the
other hand,* as far north as 67, barley ripens at the level
of 800 feet Potatoes, too, pay for cultivation even fur-
* Hexfret's Vegetation of Europe — The Scandinavian Peninsula.

OR LAPLANDERS. 79

ther north. So do cabbages, turnips, spinach, and carrots.
But then it is the Norwegian, the Swede, or the Russian
who cultivates them, not the Lap.

The Lap, except so far as he has adopted the industry
of his neighbours, is a nomad — essentially so. His
country is that of the reindeer-moss, and the reindeer
that feeds on it ; and, beyond this, it supplies but little in
the way of natural vegetation. However, there are streams
prolific with salmon; — but the main aliment is the flesh
of the reindeer, itself migratory.

The hills of Scandinavian Lapland — the highest of
which, Sulitelma, rises to 6,168 feet — decrease as we get
into Russia, so that Russian Lapland partakes of the cha-
racter of Finland, being level and lacustrine — a land of
lakes rather than running streams.

The Sabme may fairly be looked upon as the least
industrial, and the least civilized population of Christian
Europe. They are herdsmen rather than agriculturists ;
but as their domestic animal, the reindeer, is, still, more
or less, migratory and unreclaimed, they are hunters
almost as much as they are herdsmen. They are wan-
dering herdsmen, at any rate. The Norwegian of their
neighbourhood plants potatoes, the Finlander keeps cows,
but the Lap attaches himself to the reindeer, and adapts
himself to its habits.

Essentially migratory as they are, the habits of the
Sabme have been considerably modified by the influences
of the populations with which they come in contact ; and
it cannot be denied that, upon the whole, the attention
bestowed upon them by the different governments under
which they live, has been, as things go with the weaker

80 THE SABME

populations of the world in general, praiseworthy, even if
insufficient. I state this with more confidence respecting
the Norwegian than the Swedish, and with more confi-
dence respecting the Swedish than the Russian, Laps. I
believe, however, that they are not an ill-used popula-
tion. Their language has been reduced to writing, and
that well. As the adapters of the Lap alphabet had no
preconceived views in the way of etymology, they have
spelt the language as they found it, created new let-
ters when they were necessary, expelled old ones when
superfluous, and limited the power of each sign to the
expression of a single sound, each sound having also its
appropriate sign. The effect of this is, that, other things
being equal, a Lap child learns to read easier than
another. There are two excellent grammars of their lan-
guage, Rask's and Stockfleth's ; the author of the latter
being, in name, a parish priest, but, in reality, as true a
missionary as if he had a location in the South Seas, or
in Africa. It is from his works that the best information
respecting the present condition of the Laj)s of Finmark
is to be found.

The civilization of the more civilized parts of their re-
spective kingdoms has told on the Laps. Their summer
dresses are now made up of cloth ; and their ornaments
are purchased from the Norwegians. Neither is the
blood of the Laplander so pure and unmixed as it used
to be. Of intermarriage with the Norwegians there is
but little, but a great deal with the Qua Ins. It is
better to say Quain than Fin, because Fin is what the
Laps themselves, so long as they belong to the kingdom
of Norway and to the district of Finmark, are called.

OR LAPLANDERS. 81

Hence, Quain is the more convenient word. It means
a Finlander from the Grand Duchy of Finland ; numbers
of whom come, in numerous localities, in contact with the
Laps. For instance, they come in contact with them
along the whole line of frontier. They come in contact
with them in almost every spot where there is a copper-
mine ; and such spots are numerous.

There is much Quain blood, then, among the Laps.

The Christianity of the Laps is of the same imperfect
character with their industry and culture. Nevertheless,
they are Christians ; though not all of the same denomi-
nation. The Russian Laps belong to the Greek Church,
the Swedish and Norwegian are Lutheran Protestants.
The Lutheran, however, is as Pagan as the Greek, and
the Greek as the Lutheran; inasmuch as the original
Heathenism of the country still tinges the better creed.
In fact, the old creed shews itself through the new, and the
Sabme superstitions of the time anterior to Christianity
are seen almost as clearly and transparently now as they
were seen in the days of their unmodified Paganism.
There was not much to get rid of, and of that little
more than a fair portion has been retained. There was
not much to get rid of, for the Sabme superstitions were
simple, and the mythology far from elaborate. Neither
does it seem to have been wholly native ; at least one of
their objects of veneration has a Norwegian name. So
has another — but this may be explained differently.

The being who has the Norwegian name is the Stor-
junker, pronounced Stor-yunker; a name which means
great noble. A full-grown reindeer, with full-sized ant-
lers, used to be the proper sacrifice to the Storjunker. A
thread was put through his ear, and this thread had to

E 3

82 LAP SUPERSTITIONS.

be a red one. No other colour would suit the Storjun-
ker's reindeer. "When the feast was over, and the flesh
had been eaten by the feasters, the antlers were fixed in
the ground so as to mark a certain space — a space which
was thus made holy; women, most especially, being for-
bidden to approach it.

Next, amongst the Lap gods, to the Storjunker, was
Tiermes. The third was Baiwe. The rites of Tiermes
are much the same as those of the Storjunker, but those
of Baiwe exhibit a difference in some of their details.
The string which is put through the ear of the victim is a
tvhite one. A red one would be out of place. The reindeer
is a young one. An old one would be inappropriate.
Then, as the young reindeer has no antlers, the sacred enclo-
sures of deers' horn are wanting to the sacrificial grounds
of Baiwe, or the Sun; for that is the object symbolized.

But there was a deity higher than any of these, who
seem to have been mere subordinates. This was Jubmel
(pronounced Yubmel, and Yuninul). We are not
acquainted with the details of the worship of Yubmel,
nor yet with its exact relations to his inferior divinities.
We only know that he was highest and holiest of all the Lap
gods. We know, too, what is of considerable importance,
that throughout the whole long list of populations akin
to the Laps the worship of Yubmel was extended. The
Finlanders worshipped him in Finland. He was wor-
shipped by the allied populations of the Volga; he was
worshipped by the allied tribes of the Uralian mountains.
There was, of course, a change in the form of the name,
which became Yumula, Ywmara, &c; and on the eastern
side of the White Sea. Num. Nevertheless, the deity was
the same, and the existence of his worship is (next to

LAP SUPERSTITIONS. 83

their language) the best characteristic of the class to
which the populations alluded to belong.

In one sense the old Lap religion was a religion with-
out a priesthood. There were no roofed temples, no offi-
ciating ministers. The head of the family performed his
rites himself. His proceedings were as follows: about
bow-shot from his tent he chose a convenient piece o£
ground and marked it out by rows of boughs — of the birch-
tree in summer, of the fir in winter. The area within
was holy ground ; pre-eminently holy, and, like most of
the Lap's enclosures, forbidden to females. The path
from this to the tent was also marked out by branches.
In the centre stood the representative of the deity — of
wood or stone, as the case might be ; of wood for Tiermes,
who was thence called the ivooden, of stone for the Stor-
junker, who was similarly known as the stone, god. Wood
and stone were the materials ; to which the workmanship
was scarcely equal. Indeed, there was none, or next to
none. Instead of fashioning an imao*e with his own
hands, the Lap thought himself lucky if he found one
ready-made, the workmanship of Chance or Nature.
Hence, if a birch-tree grew crooked and contorted about
the roots, if it were knobby and knotty on the stem, if
its branches grew in abnormal clusters, it was looked
upon as a deity already represented. The same with
stones. Those that were water-worn, rubbed, or drilled
into strange shapes, became divinities ; or rather, the divi-
nity grew out of the shape of the symbol. If it suggested
a bird, the idea of the Storjunker became birdlike; qua-
drupedal if the likeness were that of a beast. He would,
too, be a fish, as often birch-roots grew fish-shaped. The
same with Tiermes. He might fly one year, swim the

m LAP SUPERSTITIONS.

next, and go upon four legs the third ; or, as the sacrifices
took place twice a year, he might be a pike at Midsummer,
and an otter at Christmas. A piece of reindeer flesh was
the offering to him — the heart or liver by preference.

When the worship took a more public character, and
approached the form of a festival, the drum came in
request — the drum being the most important of all the
articles in a Laplander's pontifical apparatus. This was
a skin drawn across a frame of birch-wood; rudely painted
Avdth figures of the chief deities. In the middle was fixed
a ring with bobbins (much like those used in lace-making)
attached to it. The drum is beaten and the bobbin
dances about. The beating leaves off and the bobbin
lies quiet. The drummer then sees on whose figure it
lies. If on that of Baiwe, Baiwe has to be honoured ; if
that of Tiermes or the Storjunker, it is Tiennes or the
Storjunker accordingly.

These are the most specific of the Lap superstitions.
That certain wizards have the power of selling favourable
winds to sailors is believed not only amongst the Laps
themselves, but by the Norwegians, the Swedes, and the
Russians of their neighbourhood. The most characteristic
perhaps, of their habits or accomplishments, is what we
may call by a name coined for the occasion — she-run-
ning. The skide (pronounced she) is a snow-skate
upwards of six feet long. Up-hill the Lap toils with a
stick : down-hill he drives with the rapidity of an arrow.

UGRIANS OF THE VOLGA. 85

CHAPTER VII.

THE UGRIAN STOCK CONTINUED — UGRIANS OP THE VOLGA — THE TSHEREMIS —
THE MORDVINS THE TSHUVASH.

The three populations that will make the subject of
the present chapter, are generally said to constitute the
Volga division of the Ugrian stock. Nor is the term
very exceptionable. The governments of Viatka, Kos-
troma, Kazan, Nizhni-novogorod, Orenburg, Penza, Sara-
tov, Simbirsk, and Tambov, are their localities — all on
the Volga, none on the Dwina ; none on the Dwina like
the Siranian habitats in Vologda. At the same time
the term is not to be taken too exclusively ; the Permians
and Votiaks, belonging to another division, are neverthe-
less on the drainage of the Volga.

As this river approaches Kazan, the Russian population
gives way to the Turk ; for Kazan is a great Turk centre.

The three governments of Kazan, Simbirsk, and
Saratov, are the occupancies of three well-marked
families — the Tsheremis, the Mordvin, and the Tshuvash.

The Tsheremis. — On the left bank, rather than the
right, and on the Middle rather than the Lower Volga,
we find the Tsheremis — a population scattered and some-

86 UGRIANS OF THE VOLGA.

what widely diffused ; a population which lies in contact
with both the Russians and the Turks, as well as with the
Tshuvashes. Nevertheless it keeps itself pretty pure,
intermarrying but little with the contiguous populations —
rather, however, with the Tshuvash than with the two
others. Its true habitat is the forest — the oak-tree
forest — for we have reached a milder climate and a
stronger vegetation — the oak-tree forest, with its under-
wood of buck-thorn, spindle-tree, and hazel — the oak-
tree forest in a strong soil — the oak-tree forest that
invests the numerous ridges that form the water-sheds to
the feeders of the Yolga. Meanwhile, the clearance follows
the valleys, the Russian being the pioneer. By this
means the once continuous area of the Tsheremis has got
broken up, and the Tsheremis occupancies have become
separated from each other. Some of them, however, lie
sufficiently near the main roads to be visited by the
ordinary traveller; so that incidental notices of them
are by no means uncommon.

In the villages that Haxthausen visited on the River
Sura, there was no doubt as to the Tsheremis complexion.
It was dark, unequivocally dark; so dark that, though
he looked carefully for a single instance of a light-haired
individual, he failed to find one. A dark skin, and long
lank dark hair, prevailed, to the exclusion of aught else.
Other notices, however, are less simple ; and light hair is
attributed to them by more than one competent autho-
rity. Probably the phenomenon so common with the
Ugrian populations repeats itself here, and we have both
sorts of complexion and hair in hitherto undetermined
proportions, and under conditions that have yet to be

THE TSHEREMISS. 87

investigated. The stature is middle, the face flat, the beard
scanty — the general Ugrian character being manifest.

The Tsheremis have been more nomadic than they
are at present ; hunters, perhaps, rather than herdsmen,
during the earliest period of their history. At present,
however, they are agricultural, settled, and more or
less industrial. Their villages are said to be smaller
than those of the Votiaks and Tshuvash, and perhaps
they are more sequestered. At the same time they are
regular villages, with the village organization of a
head-man or elder for the settlement of disputes, and
for their simple legislation. There are houses, too,
which approach the Russian standard of comfort, with
property on the part of the owners to match. With the
Tsheremis of the Sura, the dress scarcely varied with the
sex, and white was the prevailing colour, the leggings
being black and white in stripes. The manners were
reserved and shy, not to say timid.

More frequently the dress of the women is charac-
teristic, just as we have seen it to be among the Votiaks.
Indeed, the details in the two divisions are not unlike ;
the cap is made more or less of the birch-tree bark, and
the cap is the most characteristic part of the whole
costume.

The great Votiak festival was that of the Keremet;
and the Keremet is the great Tsheremis one. Then
it is that there are meetings under the ordinance of a
priest in the holier parts of the forest, when offerings of
animals are made to the bad, of flowers to the good,
demons. The following is a Tsheremis song : observe
the name Yuma.

88 UGRIANS OF THE VOLGA.

1. May God give health and happiness to him who offers a
sacrifice.

2. To the children who come into the world, give, O Yuma,
plenty of good things, gold, bread, cattle, and bees.

3. During the new year make our bees to swarm and give
much honey.

4. Bless our chase after birds and after beasts.

5. Give us our fill of gold and silver.

6. Make us, O Yuma, masters of all the treasures buried in
the earth, all over the world.

7. Grant that in our bargains we may make three times the
value of our goods.

8. Enable us to pay our tribute.

9. Grant that, at the beginning of the spring, our three sorts
of cattle may find their ways back by three different paths, and
that we may keep them from bears, from wolves, and from robbers.

10. Make our cows with calf.

11. Make our thin kine fatten for the good of our children.

12. Enable us with one hand to sell our barren cows, and
with the other to take the money.

1 3. Send us, O Yuma, a true and trusty friend.

14. When we travel far, preserve us, O Yuma, from bad men,
from sickness, from fools, from bad judges, and from lying
tongues.

15. As the hop grows and throws out its scent, so, O
Yuma, grant that we wax strong through goodness, and smell
sweet from reason.

16. As the wax sparkles in burning, so let us, O Yuma, live
in joy and health.

17. Let our existence be as calm and regular as the cells of a
honeycomb.

18. Grant, O Yuma, that be who asks may obtain the object
of his prayer.

When this prayer is finished, the head, heart, lungs,
and liver are offered up to the deity to whom it is

THE TSHEREMISS. 89

addressed ; another prayer being said by the officiating
minister alone. Then they eat and pray again. This
is kept on for three days. When all is over, the bones,
entrails, and such parts of the sacrifices as have not
been consumed, are burnt, the fire having never been
allowed to go out during the whole festival.

Though he delights in the flesh of the horse, the
Tsheremis abominates that of the hog ; and this even
where his habits are un warped by any influence from
his Tartar neighbours.

The price that a Tsheremis pays for his bride — and,
as polygamy is allowed, he may pay it for several — is
called Olon. The Votiak word was Yerdon.

The Tsheremis Christianity is imperfect and inchoate.

Schubert makes the Tsherimis population amount to
200,000. If so, they are on the decrease ; since the
numbers of the map before us are —
In the Government of Yiatka 75,450

Kazan 71,375

Kostroma 3,357

Nizhni-Novogorod ... 4,330

Orenburg 2,626

Perm 7,938

165,076

Viatka is the government where the Tsheremis are
the most numerous. Besides this they are found in both
Perm and Kostroma, where there are no Tshuvashes
and no Mordvins. Hence, they are the most northern
of the Ugrians of the Volga.

It is the Russians who use the name Tsheremiss ; to
the Tsheremis himself it is strange. He calls himself

90 UGRIAXS OF THE VOLGA.

mari, a man, as so many other populations do. The
Tshuvash he calls Kurk-m&vi, Hill-msm.

There is no shadow of evidence that favours the notion
of the Tsheremis being other than an old indigenous popu-
lation— indigenous and aboriginal to the forests in which
it now occurs. It is the populations around that are recent,
the Turk and the Russian, if not the Tshuvash. The
Tsheremis area may have extended, at one time, farther
eastward ; further northward also. It may have reached
the Uralian mountains, and have been conterminous with
the occupants of the gold districts. These occupants of the
gold districts may have belonged to the more southern
branches of the Ostiaks. What if they were? This will
be considered in the sequel, when these same Ostiaks have
been noticed. At present I commit myself to the idea
that, name for name, the modern word Tsheremis is
the ancient word Arimaspi.
This assumes two changes.
First* The ejection of the final p.
Secondly, The initial change from the simple vowel a
to the compound sibilant tsh.

Are these likely ? They are not unlikely. The
accounts that the old writers got of the Arimaspi were not
got first hand. They were got from the Greeks of the
Euxine, who got them from some interjacent population.
Now, these were numerous ; since Herodotus speaks of
seven interpreters being required for the seven lan-
guages of Scythia. Some change, then, in the form of a
strange proper name passing through more than one
medium, is eminently probable. Whether the exact
change assumed be legitimate, is another question. Its
fuller discussion is reserved.

THE MORDVIN. 91

The Mordvin. — If we look only to the geographical
relations of the Tsheremis and Tshuvash, we shall take
the two populations in immediate order to each other,
the Tsheremis first, and the Tshuvash next, or vice
versa. This is because their areas join. In many cases
their villages are intermixed, so that in certain districts
there is a kind of joint occu23ancy. Upon the whole,
however, the Tshuvash keep to the right rather than
the left bank of the Volga.

But the ethnological affinity is not so close (at any
rate, not so clear) as the geographical. There are some
important points of difference between their languages.
For this reason the Mordvin will be treated first. They
are more unequivocally Ugrian than the Tshuvash, and
consequently, more undoubtedly akin to the Tsheremis ;
although they lie further from them than do the Tshuvash.

The Mordvin are the most southern of all the
Ugrian tribes that lie in situ. By this I mean all
who are old occupants of their present areas. The
Majiars of Hungary are not in this predicament.

The Mordvin, then, are the most Southern tribes that
lie in situ.

They fall into three divisions: —

a. The Ersad, on the R. Oka.

b. The Mokshad, on the R Sura.

c. The Karatai, in the neighbourhood of Kazan.
Their dialects are two — the Ersad and the Mokshad.

I cannot say to which of these the Karatai belongs.

The name Mordvin is native; i. e., they call themselves
so. It is the Tsheremis word Mori, under another
form, but with the same meaning, i. e., Man. It is the
Permian and Siranian and Votiak m-^rt.

92 TJGRIANS OF THE VOLGA.

They are somewhat larger sized than the Tsheremis,
or rather the Tsheremis are described as being smaller
than the Mordvin; their beards are thin; faces flat;
hair brown rather than black ; often red — oftener, how-
ever, with the Ersad than with the Mokshad.

Schubert puts their numbers at 92,000. If so, they
are greatly on the increase, since the numbers on the
map before us are —

For the Government of Astrakan 48

Kazan 14,867

Nizhni No vogorod .. . 53,383

Orenburg 5,200

Penza 106,025

Samar 74,910

Saratov 78,010

Simbirsk 98,968

Taurida 340

Tambov 48,491

480,242

The order, then, of the Governments in which the
Mordvins are numerous, is Penza, Simbirsk, Saratov,
Samar, Nizhni Novogorod, Tambov, Kazan, Orenburg;
there being none in Viatka, and comparatively few in
Kazan. Assuredly their occupancy is, at one and the
same time, the most southern and the most western of
all the Ugrians. In Taurida and Astrakhan they are,
probably, recent settlers.

The Mordvins are, for the most part, Christians. At
the same time the old Paganism shews through the

THE TSHUVASH. 93

newer creed. The name of their chief heathen deity is
Paas amongst the Ersad ; Shkai amongst the Mokshad.
The Tshuvash. — It has already been stated, that, in
respect to their geographical position, the Tshuvash lie
nearer to the Tsheremis than do the Mordvins. This,
at least, is the evidence afforded by their distribution
over the following six governments : —

Kazan 300,091

Simbirsk 84,714

Samar 29,926

Orenburg 8,353

Saratov 6,853

Viatka 17

429,954

There are none, then, in Perm, few in Viatka, the
northern localities of the Tsheremis ; none in Kostroma,
none in Nizhni Novogorod, their western occupancies.

Then, as compared with the Mordvins, there are none
in Penza, none in Tambov, comparatively few in Saratov.
Their centre seems to be Kazan, in the direction of Sim-
birsk; just as the centre of the Tsheremis was Kazan, in
the direction of Viatka ; and the centre of the Mordvins,
Penza. In Kazan they are nearly as numerous as the
Tartars or Turks, whose numbers are 308,574.

Schubert reckoned the Tshuvash at 370,000. If so,
they have increased.

I cannot account for the name. It is not native.
Vereyal, Khirdiyal, and Vyres are the designations by
which the Tshuvash denote themselves. According to

94 UGRIANS OF THE VOLGA.

Miiller the Russians call them Vyress as well. Yet
Tshuvash is the name of the map before me. The
Tsheremis (as aforesaid) call them Kurk-Mari — MU-
nien ; and the Mordvins, Wiedke ( Udi).

The language is the point wherein the Tshuvash and
Tsheremis chiefly differ ; the language, which equally
separates the Tshuvash and Mordvins. The language,
too, raises the only difficulties that arise in the question
as to the ethnological affinities of the Tshuvash. Their
language has been considered Ugrian ; and, as far as
the present writer can form an opinion, it is so. At the
same time, it stands in Klaproth's Asia Polyglotta as
Turk, and many good works besides.

Supposing it, however, to be Ugrian, it is more Turk
than any other of the allied forms of speech ; more Turk
than the Tsherimis or Majiar. This is a statement which
I take as I find ; and lay it before the reader without pre-
tending to explain; without even saying in what the
Turk affinities consist. They may be in the words rather
than the grammar, or in the grammar rather than in the
words. They may be as the Norman elements are in
English ; or they may he in points essential to the structure
of the language, and so resemble the Anglo-Saxon part of
the English. One thing, however, is worth remembering ;
viz., that if the Tshuvash be a language intermediate and
transitional to the Turk stock on one side and the Ugrian
on the other, — as much Ugrian as Turk, and as much
Turk as Ugrian, — it presents a very unusual phenomenon
in comparative philology. Such transitions, common as
they may be under an brJpriori point of view, are emi-
nently rare. We should scarcely suppose that they would

UGRIANS OF THE VOLGA. 95

be so ; but so they are. Forms of speech belonging to one
and the same class often graduate into each other. Still
oftener do dialects of the same language. But with great
classes, like the German (for instance) and the Sarmatian,
or like the Sarmatian (for instance) and the Latin, there are
no truly transitional and intermediate forms of speech — no
language of which the position is equivocal or ambiguous.
Everything belongs to either one class or the other.
Nothing remains unplaced or undistributed. The most
that can be said is, that some outlying dialect of one
group approaches some similar outlyer of the other ; that
a certain form of speech is more (say) Sarmatian, than
the other members of the German class — or vice versa.
This is not uncommon. The really uncommon phenom-
enon is the existence of a language so intermediate in
character as to be equivocal in respect to its position.
Yet this the Tshuvash is said, by competent judges,
to be.

If so, what follows? Even this — a reason for enlarging
the class; for throwing the Turk and Ugrian groups
under some common denomination. This is by no means
unlikely. On the contrary, there are several phenomena
that seem to demand it.

96 THE VOGULS.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE VOGULS AKD OSTIAKS.

We pass now from the Ugrians of Europe to those of
Asia ; the Uralian range of mountains and the River Ural,
or Dzhaik (Jaik), being the lines of demarcation which
separate the two continents. This boundary is more natu-
ral in its northern than its southern parts — and that in
respect both to its physical geography and its ethnology.

The ordinary names for the Ugrian populations of the
northern Ural, and the lower parts of the great Asiatic
river which waters the country on its eastern foot (the
Obi), for a population which extends from the borders
of the Siranian country to the Yenisey, are Vogul and
Ostiak; Vogul for the mountain tribes of the West, Ostiak
for the river-populations of the East ; Vogul for the men
of the Ural, Ostiak for those of the Obi and Yenisey.

Neither of these names, however, is native. It is the
Russian who uses them ; the former being probably taken
from the Siranians, the latter from the Bashkirs. But the
Siranians called the Voguls Yograyess as well. Mansi
is what they call themselves ; it is also the name which
they extend to their Ostiak neighbours.

THE VOGULS. '97

The Mansi or Voguls. — The Mansi or Vogul area,
bounded on the north by the Sosva, a feeder of the Lower,
and on the south, by the Tura and Tawda, feeders of the
Upper, Obi, coincides pretty closely with the ridge of the
northern Ural, or the watershed between the Irtish and Obi
on the east, the Petshora and Dwina on the west, and the
Kama on the south. The Permians and Siranians are con-
terminous with the Voguls. Their country makes them, at
one and the same time, hillmen and foresters ; for they lie
within the northern limit of the fir and birch, in the
country of the wolf, the bear, the sable, the glutton, the
marten, the beaver, and the elk. Their country, too,
makes them hunters; for there are no wide plains to
encourage the breeding of flocks and herds, and no climate
for the growth of the cereals. The conditions of the
northern parts of Sirania and Permia have become more
and more unfavourable for industry. Hence, the Voguls,
compared with any of the tribes that he south of them,
are a comfortless, undersized, ill-developed population;
who, if they contrast favourably with the Lap and
Samoyed, shew to a disadvantage by the side of the Fin-
lander or the Siranian. Their villages are smaller than
those of the Tsheremis; and a little reflection will shew
us, that the size of the village gives a fair measure of the
well-being of the population that occupies it. From four
to eight cabins constitute a Vogul one, and these lie from
ten to fifteen miles apart ; the forest lying between — with-
out roads, and with but few clearings. Game is the chief
sustenance ; and for the production of it the forest has to
be kept wild. To this extent are the Voguls a hunter-
population ; for it is only in the southern parts of their

F

98 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

area that the signs of settled life appear. A little tillage
and a little cattle appear as we approach the Bashkir fron-
tier— the Bashkir habits being partially adopted. The
Bashkir, however, is himself, but half agricultural.

The winter-hut of the Vogul — the Okon — is small,
close, and smoky; the summer-cabin is made of the
boughs and rind of the birch-tree. These are raised or
pulled down as the necessities of the chase require; as
one locality must be exchanged for another.

The Vogul hunts on foot. He has no pastures for
horses ; and the boggy, woody tracts under his occupancy,
are ill adapted for the use of them. Even the dog is a
rare companion. On the other hand, a few cows may
constitute the property of one of the wealthier proprietors.
The elk, however, is the chief beast for sustenance, and
the sable for trade. The reindeer is less abundant ; and
it is in the skin of the elks, amongst ruminants, that their
tribute of peltry is paid. The flesh is dried, not salted ;
cut into strips and dried in the open air, so that a kind
of pemmican is made of it.

The Vogul uses the gun as well as the bow; and he is
skilful in the contrivance of traps and pitfalls. He fishes,
too, as well as hunts. For hunting, his best month is No-
vember. This is when the animals have their full winter
fur about them. Obdorsk, at the mouth of the Obi, a
factory rather than a town, is the Vogul trading-town.
Thither he resorts with his skins, berries, and such-like
small articles of barter. The Samoyeds and Ostiaks resort
there also. Pallas (and I believe other observers) speaks
to the fact of the Voguls wholly dispensing with the use
of salt. Berries they have, but no vegetables ; and they

THE VOGULS. 99

chew the turpentine of the larch; but they use no salt,
and enjoy good health notwithstanding. They are said
to be healthy, but neither long-lived nor strong; and of
all the Ugrians of the forest-districts (as contrasted with
those of the tundras) they have a physiognomy that
most approaches that of the typical Mongol. The hair
is black or brown — seldomer yellow, or red; the beard
scanty, the face feminine; the skin glabrous and pale.
The cheekbones project, and, as the face is generally de-
scribed as flat and broad, the zygomata curve laterally
outwards. From this, Maltebrun has allowed himself to
draw the wholly gratuitous inference of their being a
Mongolian population, that has been conquered by the
Hungarians and had a Ugrian form of speech thrust upon
them: — "Les Wogouls ne sont probablement qu' une
peuplade Kalmouque, anciennement subjuguee par les
Hongrois, et a laquelle ceux-ci, auront impose de force
leur langue. {Maltebrun, Precis de la Geographie
Universelle, torn, vi., p. 443.)

As early as 1741, the Swedish traveller Schonstrom
remarked that their language was akin to the Fin. He
also stated that he had heard from some of themselves
that their original locality lay west of their present, i. e.,
on the Yug and the Dwina ; so that their ancestors had
moved from west to east. This is likely. They are a
population easily encroached upon ; and as the line of
demarcation between them and their neighbours, is
broader and more definite in the direction of Perm and
Vologda than on that of the Obi ; as they are less like
the Siranians than they are to the Ostiaks ; the natural

F 2

100 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

probabilities of a displacement of some of them on the
western side of the Ural is increased. It is not, however,
to be imagined that the ancestors of the present moun-
taineers were driven from the lower country into their
present area. On the contrary, they have every ap-
pearance of being indigenous to the Uralian ranges.
Their dialects are numerous and well marked, and
indicate a long lapse of time for their development.
Hence the criticism of the Vogul localities should be
that of the Caucasian populations — that of the Welsh
— that of the Basks of the Pyrenees — that of the
Siaposh of Kaferistan — that of nine out of ten moun-
taineer populations all over the world ; and it should be
held that they are the remains of a population which
was once spread over the lower country, around and
about ; but of which the more accessible and ill-defended
portions have been swept away — the remainder being
preserved by the impracticable character of their country.
This, I say, is the truer view of mountaineer populations
in wild localities ; yet it is not the usual one. The far
more prevalent doctrine assumes the bodily movement
of a retreating population ; of a population receding
from the lower lands to the higher ; of a shelter-seeking
in the mountains. It is in this way that the Welsh
are supposed to represent the Britons of (perhaps) some
midland county that " retreated to the mountains,"
(as the saying is,) on the access of the Romans, in-
stead of so many aborigines of Merioneth and Cardigan.
It is in this way that the Basks of the Pyrenees are
represented to be Spaniards who " retreated to the
mountains." Now, such retreats are rare phenomena : ill

THE VOGULS. 101

most cases there has been no populational locomotion
whatever; no transfer from one level to another; no
change of place at all. There has been merely the
circumscription of a circumference ; the central parts
being left untouched.

The present Voguls, then, are in situ. At the same
time their further extension westward is probable. So
is their further extension southwards ; as will be seen
in the sequel. It is more, indeed, than probable. The
prolongation in a southern direction of the area of a
population more or less Vogul in its ethnological
affinities is an ethnological necessity. But this (as afore-
said) will be brought under notice hereafter.

In Schubert's tables the number of the Voeruls is
about 100,000. The map before us gives only those of
European Russia ; in other words, those of the Government
of Perm, the only European one which contains any.
None seem to belong to Vologda, none to Archangel.
Now, the Voguls of European Russia, the Voguls of the
Government of Perm, amount to no more than 872.
What proportion these bear to those of the Obi and the
other Trans-uralian districts, I cannot say. In respect to
the other populations of the Government of Permia, the
Voguls stand at the botom of the list of Ugrians, which
is as follows : —

Permians 47,605

Tsheremis 7,935

Voguls 872

ov

56,412

102 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

The further we move northwards, the wilder do we find
the Voguls. In the southern part of their area they
partake of the habits of the Bashkir and the Russian.
Along the Tura and the Tawda they exercise an
imperfect agriculture, speak Russian as well as Vogul,
and have been partially converted to Christianity, par-
tially and indifferently.

A measure of the exertions of the Vogul missionaries,
we find in the fact of the Vogul language being
the most imperfectly known of all the western tongues
of Ugria. It is the only one for which we have no
grammatical sketch. It may, however, resemble the
Ostiak sufficiently to make this unnecessary ; though
Muller states that the two languages are mutually un-
intelligible.

Of their success, we get the measure in the amount of
the Vogul paganism still existent. In the south it may,
possibly, be the exception. In the north it is the rule.
Its general character closely approaches that of the
Laplanders. The priest is the head of the family ;
success in hunting, the chief object of their prayers. To
this end, the carven image of the god takes the form of
the beast under pursuit, being sable-shaped, elk-shaped,
or bear-shaped, according as the bear, the elk, or the
sable is the more especial object Near a hunting-
lodge on the Sosva, is the rude image of an elk, carved
by an unknown hand out of stone, an image of some
antiquity. This the Voguls visit from considerable
distances, and invoke its favour during their expeditions.
I take the account from Muller, who specially says that
it is " rough-hewn out of stone." The analogy, however,

THE VOGULS. 103

of the Lap mythology, makes it probable that it is a
natural piece of rock, whereof the shape is elk-like
enough to suggest the comparison. However, offerings
are made to it by its visitors. Other figures are in the
human form ; and of these some are of metal, iron, or
copper. It is in certain holy places where they are
found ; fixed in the clefts of a rock or tree ; raised on
poles stuck in the ground — the ground being the most
elevated spot about. On one of the numerous streams
called Shatanka, is a holy cavern, on the floor of which
are found bones, the remains of Vogul offerings — bones
and rings of Russian workmanship, but of Yogul con-
secration.

Observe the name. Shatanka. It comes from Satan,
a name which we expect amongst Jews and Maho-
metans rather than amongst Shamanistic Voguls.
Amongst them, however, we find it, and that abun-
dantly. So we do amongst the Tsheremis and Tshu-
vash ; whilst amongst the Yogul s of Perm, the southern
members of the group, we find the Tsheremis and
Tshuvash Keremets, and its accompanying ceremonies.
These are called the Torom Saktadag ; the latter word
being allied to the name for priest, which is Sakta-t&ha,.
Torom, on the other hand, is the name of a god whose
residence is in the sun or moon ; a god whose name
appears in all, or nearly all, of the other Ugrian
mythologies. Yelbola is the name of the feast of
Torom ; probably the same word as the Finlandish
Yumala, and the Lap Yubmel — and with the feast of
Yelbola the Yogul year begins.

The Ostiaks. — It is, perhaps, safe to say that the

104 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

Vogul is a European Ostiak, the Ostiak an Asiatic
Vo«nl the chief difference being the mountaineer and
fluviatile character of their respective areas ; for that of
the Ostiak is the valley of the Obi, reaching, in some
cases, across the water-shed, to the Yenisey.

The Vogul was a hunter rather than a fisher; the
Ostiak is a fisher rather than a hunter — a fisher in fresh
water rather than in the sea. This is a habit of which
we have not seen much, the combination of an Arctic
climate and a large river flowing northwards being
one which has not yet been met with. There were
fishers amongst the Laps ; but the Lap rivers were insig-
nificant in point of size, and the country around supplied
the reindeer in sufficient abundance to make it the chief
means of sustenance. Besides which, the Lap domesti-
cates the reindeer, which the Ostiak does but slightly.
Like the fisher Lap, the Ostiak has a summer and a
winter residence ; the former moveable, the latter fixed ;
the former tent-like, the latter aspiring to the name of
hut. In the Tshum — a Tungusian name adopted by
the Russians for the summer dwelling of the Ostiak — a
few poles are placed in the ground and slanted towards
each other at the top, pyramid-fashion. "Round this is
made a sort of wall of boughs and birch-bark, much after
the fashion of the Vogul and Lap huts. The winter cabin
is made of timber — square in shape, and often half sunk
in the soil, with sods of turf for the roofing-tiles. But
as these are of more elaborate workmanship, they are
only joint occupancies ; and three, four, or half-a-dozen
families may tenant them — with a sum total, of perhaps,
thirty individuals, of all ages, both sexes, and an utter

THE OSTIAKS. 105

disregard, if not an absolute distaste, for cleanliness.
The stench of the Ostiak winter cabin is described as in-
supportable to any but the Ostiak, the Samoyed, or the
Lap. Fish and smoke equally, along with tobacco,
which the Ostiak loves to swallow rather than inhale,
contribute to it.

The women are partially tattooed, a habit we meet with
for the first time. I am not aware that any other of the
western Ugrians practise such a custom, though a few
Turks used to do, and more than one tribe of Tungusians
do so now.

Salt is scarce amongst them, so that the fish of the
Ostiak, like the flesh of the Vogul, is either dried or
frozen. And summer is the time for fishing. There is,
then, abundance, and over-abundance ; enough for the
Ostiak 's own consumption ; enough for drying for winter's
use ; enough for the numerous dogs that draw the
sledges ; enough for use, and enough for barter. As
the autumn advances, the river-bank is exchanged for the
woods, and companies prepare themselves, at the first
fall of snow, with long snow-skates, like those of the
Laplander, and sledges, that their dogs will have to draw
for long expeditions into the forests in search of bears,
foxes, sables, or squirrels. The whole clothing is now of
reindeer-skin, doubled, so as to have the hair both inside
and out. And this is the dress of many of the Russians
as well ; so protective is it against the sharp and piercing-
blasts of a Siberian winter.

Undersized, like the Lap and Vogul, the Ostiak is
deficient in muscular strength ; deficient, too, in bodily
activity ; though, at the same time, tolerant of

f3

106 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

cold, hunger, and hardship. In youth he suffers but
little from disease ; though, as he grows older, he gets
liable to scorbutic and cutaneous ailments. He is, pro-
bably, not long-lived. Thin in the arms and legs, flat
in the suborbital part of the face, he is small-boned,
red-haired, simple-minded, good-tempered, and hospi-
table; easily taken-in in his dealings with the Russian
traders of Beresov and Obdorsk. Of these two towns —
if the latter may be honoured with the appellation —
Beresov is the great Ostiak emporium, and the whole
neighbourhood of Beresov is Ostiak. In Obdorsk
there is a business with the Voguls and Samoyeds
as well.

The frontier populations to the Ostiaks are the two
populations last mentioned, certain populations of the
Yenisey, and the northern Turks of Siberia. To one of
these Turkish and Siberian Khanates (that of Isker),
the Ostiaks were originally subject, though, also,
under the rule of their own petty chieftains ; petty
chieftains, but the representatives of an Ostiak nobility.
Of these, a few descendants still remain, more or less
respected by the plebeian families of their districts,
but by no means in easy circumstances. They have to
hunt, and fish, and work for their living, just like the
others.

The rule that applied to the Vogul applies to the
Ostiak. The further thev He north, the lower their civi-
lization. The dialects, too, are said to run south and
north, the former being more mixed with the Russian
and Bashkir, the latter with the Samoyed. Muller
makes them two in number. Castren, however, who

THE OSTIAKS. 107

is a better authority, makes three divisions, one of which
he sub-divides. The first is that of the river Irtish, the
one which he has more especially represented in his
grammar. The second and third are those of the neigh-
bourhoods of Surgut and Obdorsk, the former varying for
the parts over and above the city.

The Voguls, who call themselves Mansi, call the
Ostiaks Mansi also ; so that the Voguls, at least, draw
no very broad distinction between their neighbours and
themselves. Ostiak was first used by the Siberian
Turks, from whom the Russians have adopted it. They
have adopted and extended it ; since some of the
Samoyeds, as well as those tribes whom Klaproth calls
Yeniseians, are similarly designated by the Russians.
The Samoyeds called them Thahe. We have not yet
come to the native names. Three of these are found in
Miiller, applied by different portions of the Ostiak popu-
lation to themselves. So that, in all probability, they
have no general or collective denomination. The first of
these names is Kondikho, the term for the Ostiaks of the
Konda ; the second, Tyu-kum (or morass-men) ; the third,
As-jach (river-men). The last of these is, probably,
Ostiak in its native form ; in which case the name of a
particular division has been extended to the whole
group, just as, according to Tacitus, the name German,
which originally designated the tribe of the Tungri,
eventually meant all the populations, really or probably,
closely or remotely, geographically or ethnologically,
politically or socially, allied to them.

Schubert gives 100,000 as the number of the Ostiaks;
Koppen, 18,840 for the Government of Tobolsk only.

108 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

But (as has been already stated) the district of Beresov
is their chief area. Of this I have seen no census. The
Ostiak country lies beyond the statistics of the tables
before us, although, in the map, part of their country is
marked out. The traditions as to their origin coincide
with those of the Voguls, and point to the western side
of the Uralians, to the parts about the Kama and its
feeders ; whence, in the latter half of the fourteenth
century, the ancestors of the present Ostiaks descended
upon the banks of the Obi. I interpret this to mean
that they were, at one time, extended so much further
westwards ; the present Ostiaks, in my mind, lying in
aitu.

The palmary and primary fact in their ethnology
rests upon this view. Of all the Ugrian tribes the
Majiars of Hungary are the most prominent in history;
and of all the undoubted Ugrian localities, the southern
frontier of the Ostiak and Vogul area is the nearest
to the northern frontier of the Majiars — of the Majiars
in the original Asiatic lath it at.

Again, of all the Ugrian languages, the Ostiak is
likest the Majiar.

The same applies to the mythologies. The Majiars
are Christians, and have long been so ; but there is no
Ugrian population in which the Christianity is suffi-
ciently complete to have effaced all traces of the original
paganism. It may be added that there is no population
— Ugrian or non-Ugrian — where it is so. Hence, the
old Majiar paganism shews through the later creed ;
and (when this is the case) the existing paganism of the
Ostiaks best illustrates it. OerJik, the Majiar Devil, is

THE OSTIAKS. 109

the Ostiak Ortik, an evil demon also. In respect to the
ceremonies and offerings, the Lap forms of worship
repeat themselves amongst the Ostiaks. There are the
same household idols, the same holy rocks, the same
consecrated spots of forest or woodland.

In certain conspicuous places there are large-sized
idols, famous amongst which are the Ortlonk and the
Slataya baba. The name of the former is Ostiak, and
means king of idols. He stood at Lonkpugl — the idol
village, not far from the junction of the Irtish and Obi.
A male figure, of no great size, and roughly carved out
of wood, was this same Ortlonk, with two female images
near him. When the priest consulted him, offerings of
skins or animals were laid before him. It was believed
that he had been brought from Permia, but the belief
was, probably, inferential. There were similar images
in that country, and a hypothetical migration best
accounted for the similarity in the minds of such rude
speculators as first instituted comparisons upon those
points, Avherein the Ugrians of the two sides of the
Uralian range agreed. The inference then took the
garb' of a tradition ; most traditions being but inferences
in disguise.

The Slataya baba, or golden old woman, we only
know from its Russian name and the notice of Herber-
stein. It stood on the Lower Obi — " Slata baba, i.e.,
aurea anus idolum est ad Obi ostia in provincia Obdora
in ulteriore ripa situm." (Merum Muscovitarum Com-
ment., p. 82.) This may be as much Samoyed as
Ostiak.

Another image, known to the Kosaks who conquered

110 THE UGRIAN STOCK

these parts, stood on the Konda. It was of gold or
gilded, and was said to have come from Russia, where it
was called Christ. This, too, was brought into the
Ostiak country from the western side of the Ural, or
said to be so brought.

Upon a holy Ostiak locality, whether wood or clearing,
rock or stream, whether hallowed because it had
been the scene of a successful chase, or because an idol
had stood there, or because an eagle had built many
years successively on one of its trees, was placed a kind
of tabu. Grass was not mown from it, nor wood cut, nor
game nor fish taken. Even a draught of water to a
thirsty hunter was forbidden.

Erman's account is the same in substance, though
with a confusion of names ; e.g., his Long is an idol or
deity in general, rather than any one specially.

The carved part of the image of Ortik is a bust, a
bust only, a bust without a trunk ; as is usual with
the other Ostiak deities. The body is a stuffed sack, the
face is a plate of metal hammered over it. Two linen
sleeves are sewn on for arms. It is placed on a table, and
a sword and spear laid beside it. J elan has an image like
Ortik's, only his head is more peaked. This is the god
in whose honour the war-dance is performed. Some-
times his vestments are made of black dog-skin. Long
is a sort of Mercury. The Russians call him the master.
Every art is under his patronage, medicine most espe-
cially. The characteristic of the offering to Long lies in
the fact of its never being in the shape of the raw material.
There must be work in it of some sort. Furs are
especially excluded. Long wears the girdle aforesaid,

THE OSTIAKS. Ill

which is kept as covered with ornaments as it can be.
Meik bears the blame when the Ostiak loses his way in
the snow, or when anything equally untoward befalls
him, His image is dressed in beaver-skins.

1 1 2 THE xraiiiAN STOCK.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SAMOYEDS — BUT LATELY RECOGNIZED AS UGRIAN — THE NORTHERN AND

SOUTHERN BRANCHES— THEIR PAGANISM- THE YENESEIANS OF KLAPROTH

THE YUK.AHIRI.

The Samoyeds of Russia in Europe are found only in
the Government of Archangel, where their numbers,
according to the map before us, amount to no more than
4,495. Small, however, as this population is, it is nearly
double that of the Laps; the Laps of Archangel being
2.289. The Siranians of the Government amount to
6,958, and the Karelians to 11,228.

The Karelians, in fact, are the chief Ugrian population ;
but they are not the oldest and most aboriginal. They
have encroached from the South, their direction being
north and north-west ; so that the Laps have been dis-
placed by them, rather than the Samoyeds.

The Lap lies to the north of the Karelians, the Samoyed
surmounts (so to say) the Siranians ; the area of the former
being to the west, that of the latter to the east, of Arch-
angel. So that the Dwina and the White Sea form the
lines of demarcation. Climate for climate, and soil for soil,

THE SAMOYEDS. 113

the Lap is somewhat the more favoured of the two. As
we move eastward the tree-limit recedes southwards, until
in the central parts of Siberia it reaches its southern extre-
mity. The reindeer, too, is either more abundant or
more easily domesticated, in the Lap districts — especially
in those of Scandinavia. The Lap has more of the forest
than the tundra, the Samoyed more of the tundra than
the forest. On the other hand his rivers are larger, and
probably more j)roductive of fish.

If the northern Samoyed have a worse country than the
Lap, he has a better neighbourhood ;i.e., his frontagers on
the south leave him more at liberty and encroach upon
him less. The southern frontier of the Lap continually
recedes. So does the eastern. The Norwegian presses
on him ; the Russian presses on him ; the Finlander, whe-
ther Quain or Karelian, presses on him. He is contimi-
ally getting straitened ; and for a nomade, whose wealth
lies in his reindeer, the want of ample space is the want
of sufficient sustenance. The Samoyed has the Vogul
and the Ostiak for his neighbours, and further eastwards
the Tungusian, who, by the way, presses upon him some-
what closely. So do the Siberian Turks upon the
Southern Samoyeds. But the Samoyed of Archangel
and Beresov, the Samoyed of the Petshora and the Obi,
has his area comparatively free and uncircumscribed. I
cannot find that the Lap and Samoyed come in contact.
The Russians and Karelians, who follow the course of the
Dwina towards Archangel, separate them. Originally,
the case was different ; so that when each family occupied
its whole area, the eastern boundary of the one was pro-
bably the western of the other. But even this may not

114 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

have been the earliest state of things. The Laps, instead
of lying to the west of the Samoyeds, may at first have
been their neighbours on the north — since reasons will be
given for believing that the last-named population, like
the Finlanders and Karelians, lay originally in the south,
and, from the south, moved northwards.

The word Samoyed is one which has given rise to some
astonishing etymologies, and to erroneous impressions in
the way of ethnology not a few. In the first place it has
taken the form Samo-gedi, which is very like the name
of the Lithuanian Samogitce, or Samogitians. There
are the elements of confusion here. Then it gets a German
comment upon it, based upon the notion that its meaning
is to be sought in the German languages, where ged may
be supposed to represent the English word eat, and where
sam is the English word same* Then same is further
supposed to mean self. So that Samogedi or Samoyeds
are Self-eaters, or (by extension of the meaning of the
word self) eaters of their hind, cannibals. Hence,
Herberstein allows himself to write thus : — " Ultra Petzora
fluvium ad montem Camenipojas, item mare insulasque
vicinas, sunt varise et innumerae gentes, quae uno ac
communi nomine Samoged (quasi diceres se ipsos come-
dentes) nuncupantur. " {Rer. Muscovit. Comment, p. 81 .)

The real history I believe to be as follows ; — Its
meaning is to be sought in the Ugrian tongues, probably
in the Karelian form of the Fin, or, perhaps, in the
Siranian ; these two dialects being spoken between the

* The Slavonic tongues give us the same elements; viz., samo,
self, and yea, eaL

THE SAMOYEDS. 115

Samoyed frontier and the Russian. This is fen, marsh,
morass, or swamp — the latter being an English form of
the same root, though how it came into our language is
a difficult question. It was applied by the Karelians
or Siranians, to the county occupied by their Samoyed
neighbours, and taken up from the Karelian or Siranian
by the Russians, from whom it spread over the learned
world of Europe at large. If this be true, it is the
same root that appears in the name Suomelaiset, and
Sabine, Fin, and Lap. More than this : it is the same
word as Samogitia,, distant as the latter locality is
from the Samoyeds ; since a case may be made out for
believing the word to be Lithuanic, only in the way that
such a name as Britain is English, i. e., not at all. As
Britain belonged to the language of a population,
occupant of a given locality, anterior to the Angle
conquest, so did Samogitia apply to a district which was
either Ugrian or on the Ugrian frontier, before it became
Lithuanic.

At present

The Siranians call the Samoyeds Yarang.

Ostiaks Yeryan-yakh.

Voguls Yorran-kum.

Tungusians Dyandal.

The Russians, as aforesaid, (and, after the Russians, the
French, English, and Germans,) say Samoyed. But it is
only the Khasovo, or northern branch, that they so
denominate. The southern Samoyeds have been called
Ostiaks ; which they are not.

This shews the amount of confusion engendered by
inaccurate names. One of the designations before us

116 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

conceals an affinity which actually exists ; the other
suggests an erroneous one,

It illustrates, too, a method of criticism, which is too
often misapplied. The ordinal';/ interpretation of such
a fact as two populations, so distant from each other as
Herberstein's Samogedi and the Samogitse of Lithuania,
bearing names so similar, is that they both belonged to
the same class. The true inference is different from this
— very different. The synonymous tribes, no matter
how many of them there be, need be in no ethnological
relation at all to each other. They need only be in a
certain relation to some third population — the popula-
tion which lies between them, which touches their two
frontiers, and which supplies the name common to the
two.

This is the principle upon which the natives of Wales,
of Italy, of the Valais in Switzerland, of the Walloon
country in the Ardennes, are all Welsh. (Weahl-as).
They all he in contact with populations sufficiently allied
to each other to denote their neighbours by the same
term. Hence —

Identity of name, in distant localities, proves no
ethnological connexion between the synonymous popu-
lations.

It only proves the mutual affinity of the interjacent
populations.

This is enlarged upon here, because it illustrates a
line of criticism which will be applied somewhat freely
and boldly hereafter.

The Samoyeds falls into two divisions, a southern and
a northern.

THE SAMOYEDS. 117

This Southern division — the division of the Soiot —
will be noticed first. Part of its area lies within the limits
of the Chinese empire, so that its neighbours are Turks,
Mongolians, and Tungusians, rather than Laps, Voguls,
and Ugrians ; and its latitude is one that, in Europe, would
give us gardens, cornfields, and vineyards — the latitude
of Paris, N. L. 49. This crosses the head-waters of the
two great rivers Obi and Yenisey ; upon each of which we
find branches of these Southern, or Soiot, Samoyeds. At
Tunkinsk, on the south-western extremity of the Lake
Baikal, in the Russian territory, and on a Turk frontier,
lie the most eastern of them. At Abakansk, on the Upper
Yenisey, and on the Uda, a feeder of the Yenisey, lie
other tribes ; on the parts about Lake Ubsa, further south
still, and within the Chinese territory, others ; others on
the Bashkus, which expands in Lake Altun (or Teleakoi)
and becomes one of the head-waters of the Obi.

The names and forms of speech vary with the
area. There are the Motori, the Koibal, and the Ka-
mash dialects, known more or less imperfectly, through
the vocabularies of the Asia Polyglotta. And there
are the tribes of Bagari, the Matlar, the Tozhiri,
and the Ulek, divisions of the Uriangchai or Soiot
Proper ; the tribes of the Karakash ; the tribes of the
three dialects, just named (Motori Koibal, and Kamash) ;
and the tribe of the Tubintsi.

The pressure from the neighbouring tribes on these
Southern Samoyeds is considerable ; the Motori being
probably extinct. At least, in A.D. 1722, only ten
families of them remained.

Few populations are less known than these Southern

118 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

Samoyeds, Ostiaks as they have loosely been called,
Soiot (in the wider sense of the term) as they are
proposed to be named. They are said to be im-
poverished, distressed, and reduced in numbers. What
is their relation to their area ? Are they immigrants or
aborigines ? Do they lie in situ, or have they come
from the north? We have nothing but the a priori
probabilities before us. Their occupancy lies on an
elevated and probably broken surface ; an elevated
and broken surface more likely to retain an old than
to accept a new population. Add to this, that the
Samoyeds of the north are not a nation of conquerors and
invaders. As a general rule, the lines of immigration for
these parts are from south to north, rather than
vice versa. As a general rule, too, the lower country
is easier conquered from the higher than the higher from
the lower. Nevertheless, all such reasoning is essentiallv
cb priori and, as such, unsafe. What if they were
colonies of settlers, removed from the parts beyond
them by the Mongol or other conquerors of Siberia, at a
time when history was dark and silent ? They may be so.
At the same time, their forms of speech, so far as we
know them, from the vocabularies of the Asia Poly-
glotta, collected by Strahlenberg and Messerschmidt,
vary sufficiently to indicate long separation from the
parent speech.

Then there is a tradition amongst them to the
effect that they came from the land of Suomi. We have
seen this word before, and know what it implies, or rather
what it does not imply. It does not imply that they
came from the Samogitia, the Suomalaiset country, the

THE SAMOYEDS. 119

Sabme districts, or even from the land of the Samoyed.
It simply means that they came from some marshy,
fenny, or swampy area. This might be near or distant ;
inasmuch as, wherever there are swamps and Ugrians
there are conditions for such a name as Suom: just as,
amongst the German populations, there are fens in Lin-
colnshire, and veens in Friesland. Upon the whole, I
think they lie in situ. If so, the Northern Samoyeds
have followed the lines of the great rivers, and encroached
on the more Arctic populations.

The reindeer is one of the domestic animals of the
Soiot Samoyeds ; perhaps the chief one.

The character of their language was known to Strah-
lenberg ; this meaning its affinity with the dialects of the
Khasovo. And it is this affinity of speech which links
the Southern division with —

The Northern. — Of these (as has been stated) Khasovo
is the native name, though some tribes call themselves
Nyenekh, and others Mokasi. Khasovo, too, is a conve-
nient name for the division ; Samoyed being reserved for
the whole group.

The parts about Mezen, between Archangel and the
Petshora, give us the western, the River Khatunga, be-
tween the Yenisey and Lena, the eastern frontier of the
Khasovo. Their southernmost locality is the neighbour-
hood of Tomsk ; and the neighbourhood of Tomsk is the
northern frontier of the Soiot. So that the general
Samoyed area is, probably, continuous and unbroken.
At the same time the details are obscure. Neither is it
certain that the division itself is strictly natural. I give
it, however, as I find it.

120 THE UGRIAN STOCK.

As the Obi and Yenisey approach the sea the interve-
ning area increases. Its steppe-like character (to judge
from the rivers) increases also. This gives us a Ugrian
population under the physical conditions of a Mongol
or Turk of Tartary, who has but little to get from any
forest, little from any fishery. Again, the division into
tribes takes prominence among the Samoyeds. In other
respects, they resemble the Laps of the more treeless dis-
tricts ; having, perhaps, a little more bodily strength, and
a little more energy. The physiognomy, too, is more
Mongolian or Kalmuc, the stature being below the
average.

The dialects are numerous, and we have specimens of
them from —

1. Pustosesk, at the mouth of the Petshora, the north-
westernmost locality.

2. Obdorsk, at the mouth of the Obi.

3. The River Tym, on the right side of the Obi.

4. The River Ket, ibid.

5. Narym, between the two.

6. Pmnpokolsk, north of the Tym.

7. Tomsk, the southernmost locality.

8. The parts between the Obi and Yenesey, — the
Yurass, the Tas, and Mangaseia vocabularies.

9. Turuchansk.

10. East of Turuchansk, — the Karass vocabulary.

11. The parts about the Chatunga, — the Tawgi voca-
bulary. These are the most easterly specimens.

12. The Laak vocabulary.

A Samoyed grammar, in the course of publication, is
one of the last works of Castrcn — a posthumous one.

THE YENISEIANS. 121

It is Castren who, confirming a suggestion of Schott's
and (I believe) also of Gabelentz's as well, definitely-
placed the Samoyeds amongst the Ugrians — the lan-
guage being the guide. Until his grammar comes before
the world, the details of the evidence will be incomplete,
It may safely, however, be assumed that they will suffice.

It is the present writer, who, ignorant of Castren s
researches, and of the Ugrian character of the Samoyed
language, predicated of two other populations that they
were in the same category with the Samoyed, whatever
that might be.

The fact of the Samoyed being Ugrian by no means mo-
difies his opinion. The first of these families is that of —

a. The Yeniseians ; the second, that of —

b. The Yukahiri.

As Paganism increases as we move eastward and north-
ward, the three families under notice are the least modi-
fied by either Christianity from the side of Russia, or
Buddhism from that of Mongolia. Neither are they Maho-
metans through any Turk influences. But the Yeni-
seians and Yukahiri are small groups ; small and obscure.
This leaves the Samoyeds as the chief specimen of the
Siberian heathens of the Ugrian stock.

The Yeniseians. — This is a name so clearly taken
from that of the Yenisey as to make the statement, that
the tribes to which it applies are occupants of the banks
of that river, superfluous. It is not unnecessary, how-
ever, to say, how it arose and who gave it. In all the
works anterior to the publication of the Asia Polyglotta
(in 1823), a number of small tribes occupying the Middle
Yenisey, were known under the vague, and general, and

G

122 THE YENISEIANS.

inaccurate denomination of Ostiaks of the Yenisey, a term
sufficiently precise to distinguish them from the Ostiaks of
the Obi — provided that they were Ostiaks, which they
were not; not, at least, in the ordinary sense of the
term. They were less Ostiak than they were Samoyed.
They were also less Ostiak than were the Voguls. This
induced Klaproth to suggest the simple name Yeniseian.
. The Yeniseian area lies on each side of the Yenisey,
from Abakansk, to the parts about Mangaseia — both
Abakansk and Mangaseia being Samoyed localities.
The Uda, too, the Sym, and other Yeniseian feeders,
are Yeniseian occupancies. The Ket, a feeder of the Obi,
is the same. The fifty-sixth parallel cuts their area;
Krasnoyarsk, Inbazk, and Pumpokolsk being the towns
of their district — the towns of their district, but by no
means the towns of the Yeniseians. They are as little
industrial and commercial as the Samoyeds, and as truly
as the Samoyeds are they a country rather than a town
population. One, at least, of their divisions (that of the
Arini) is extinct. The others are inconsiderable. On
the South they are bounded by the Soiot, and certain
Turk tribes approaching them, and of mixed blood; on
the North, by the Khasovo ; on the West, by the Ostiaks ;
and on the East, by the Tungusians, of the Tunguska
river.

With moveable huts, consisting of a few poles, encircled
by the rind of the birch, and with a few reindeers, the Ye-
niseians live chiefly by fishing and hunting; skilful in
both pursuits; skilful, too, as smiths and smelters of iron;
still retentive of their original paganism.

The Arini, (Arintsi or Ariner,) the tribe which we

THE YENISEIANS. 123

suppose to have become extinct, amounted in 1721 to
between 40 and 50 individuals, and in 1735 to no more
than 10;«of which only two spoke their native tongue.
The rest had either died off, or become assimilated to the
Turks of the River Katsha. Their power was broken at
the time of the Russian conquest of the parts about To-
bolsk and Tomsk ; and it was broken by a blunder. The
classical reader remembers what Gibbon calls the "tre-
mendous allegory " of the Scythians — a frog, a mouse, a
bird, and a bundle of arrows; which was explained to
mean, that an enemy could escape the last only by being
one of the three first ; by diving under the water like a
frog, by burrowing under the earth like a mouse, or by
flying in the air like a bird. Now, the Arini were simi-
larly allegoric. When the Russians were fighting against
the other Siberians, they sent to Tobolsk an arrow, some
red earth, and a black fox, as a symbol of friendship.
It was mistaken for the contrary, and the nation was at-
tacked accordingly. What if the Scythian symbols have
been equally misinterpreted, and that by learned scholars,
as well as by savage conquerors?

The Kott and the Kongroits\i are closely allied
tribes, called by the Arini, Assan, and by the Turks,
Koibali — i. e., by the same name that is given to
one of the Samoyed divisions. They lie east of the
Arintsi.

The Deng or Denka, as they call themselves, are called
also the Sable Ostiaks, though less correctly. In 1723,
Messerschmidt took a vocabulary of their language, and re-
marked, that it carried its numerals no further than five.
Their locality was on the Tunguska.

G 2

l'2± THE YENISEIANS.

The Kdnniyilng are the Yeniseians of the part
about Inbazk, and Turikhansk. It is remarkable
that they call the Russians Siryan (S Iranian).

Of the Yesirti and Dzesirti I can only say, that,
along with the Arini, they bury their dead as follows : —
The bow and arrows are placed in the grave of the de-
ceased, over which his best horse is slaughtered and
flayed. The skin is then stretched over a pole, set up
on the grave, and the flesh is feasted on.

The women, after their confinements, wash themselves
three times within the first seven days, and then fumigate
themselves with a herb named Irben. The first friend
that visits them names the child.

Their oaths are taken over a bear's head, of which the
swearer fixes his teeth in the nose.

When a sentence equivalent to banishment is pro-
nounced against a culprit, he is placed between a dog
and a reindeer. These are then set free. Whichever
way they run must be taken by the man also, who is no
longer allowed to remain where he was — even a draught
of water from his old locality is forbidden. So is all fur-
ther intercourse with, any of his original neighbours.

Of no population throughout Siberia are our notices
more scanty than they are for these Yeniseians; the Asia
Polyglotta being the authority for the present notices ;
the original authority being Messerschmidt, who visited
and described the country in 1723.

The name Arini is probably Turk rather than native.
It is said to mean ivasps; the population to which it
applies being so denominated from their warlike activity.
But it most likely means nothing of the kind; being

THE YENISEIANS. 125

neither more nor less than the Turk word Ari, a name
which we have seen applied to the Yotiaks.

More important is the form Siryan, which suggests
the possibility of the Siranian and Yeniseian tongues
having been once conterminous.

Again, the word Denki is a word belonging to the
Tungusian family of languages; indeed, it is the word
Tungus in its original form. More than one of the
tribe akin to the Mantshus, call themselves Donki.
Here it means man; as it probably does in Yeniseian
also.

Erman has given us a tradition, that when the horde to
which the narrator belonged "came from the setting of
the sun towards the river Tas, only four pairs remained
alive. Even these expected to perish by hunger ; but one,
being a Tshwotshibuikub," (compare this with the Sa-
moyed form Tadebzi,) "or wizard, wings sprang from his
arms; he flew into the air, plunged into the Tas, and
came up with fish. Then the others began to support
themselves by fishing."

The Yukahiri. — Separated from the Yeniseians by
the Turk Yakuts, as well as by the Tungusian Tshapojir,
the Yukahiri occupy the very shores of the Arctic Sea,
in the parts between the rivers Yana and Omolon — the
Yana west, and the Omolon east, with the Indijirka and
Kolyma between. The family to which they belong was
once powerful, containing, besides the Yukahiri, the tribes
of the Omoki and Schelagi, now extinct.

Numerous tumuli on the Indijirka are referred to the
Omoki, and on the Aniuy burial-places are seen which
are little wooden buildings containing corpses armed with

126 THE YUKAHIRI.

bows, arrows, and spears. Along with these lies the
magic drum, of which we have seen so much in Lapland.
There were, at one time, more hearths of the Omoki on
the banks of the Kolyma, than there are stars in a clear
sky. So, at least, runs the Yukahiri legend.

The Shelagi gave their name to the promontory of
Shelagshoi Nos.

The Tshuvanzi were a Yukahiri tribe also. So were
the Tsheltieri, Kudinsi. and Konghini.

They are all said to have been acquainted with the
use of iron.

The native name of the Yukahiri is Andon Domni.
The Koriaks call them A tal. Their other neighbours
are the Turk Yakuts. Hence it is probable that it is to
the Yakut language that the term Yukahir (also Tu-
kadzhir) is referrible. If so, its probable meaning is the
same as the Koriak A tal, which means spotted. It
applies to the Yukahiri from their spotted deerskin
dresses.

Now, south of these same Yakuts, who are supposed to
call the Andon Domni by the name Yukahiri (or Yukad-
zhiri), live a tribe of Tungusians. These are called Tslia-
podzhir — but not by themselves. By whom? By no
one so probably as by the Yakuts. Why? Because they
tattoo themselves. If so, it is probable that Yukadzhir
and Tshapodzhir are one and the same word — at any rate,
a likely meaning in a likely language has been claimed
for it.

Let it, then, be considered as a Turk word, meaning
spaded., tattooed, painted, — provisionally. It may appear
in any part of the Turk area, provided only, that some

THE YTJKAHIKI. 127

nation to which one of the three preceding adjectives ap-
plies be found in its neighbourhood. It may appear, too,
in any state of any Turk form of speech. But there are
Turk forms of speech as far distant from the Lena and
Tunguska as Syria or Constantinople; and there are
Turk glosses as old as Herodotus. One of these the pre-
sent writer believes to be the word Agathyrsi, being pro-
vided with special evidence to shew that the nation so
called were either themselves Turk or on a Turk frontier
Now, the Agathyrsi are called the picti Agathyrsi; and
it is submitted to the reader that the one word is the
translation of the other — the words Agathyrs (also Akat-
zir), Yukadzhir, and Tshapodzhir, being one and the
same.

128 THE TURKS OF THE KHANATES.

CHAPTER X.

THE TURK STOCK — THE TARTARS OF THE KIPTSHAK KHANATES.

We have enumerated the members of the great
Ugrian, and proceed to those of the Turk, stock.

The subjects of the present chapter are the so-called
Tartars of the —

a. Governments of Perrnia, Viatka, Kazan, and Sim-
birsk;

b. Also those of Saratov, Astrakhan, and Caucasus;
and —

c Thirdly, those of Taurida, or the Crim Tartars.

These divisions have not been made gratuitously.

If we go back into history, we shall find, that soon
after the time of Timur, when the Turks were more for-
midable to the Russians, than the Russians of the present
moment are to the Turks, the three divisions just given
coincide with three Kingdoms, Empires, or (to use the
nomenclature of the population with which we are
dealing) Khanates; viz.,

THE TURKS OF THE KHANATES. 129

a. The Khanate of Kazan.

b. The Khanate of Astrakhan.

c. The Khanate of Crimea.

Such are the terms that apply to the state of things
subsequent to the time of Timur or Tamerlane — Timur
or Tamerlane having been a Turk as opposed to a Mon-
gol. So that the beginning of the three Khanates was,
there or thereabouts, simultaneous, i. e., within the last
quarter of the 14th century (between 1375 and ]400).

The duration of them, however, was different. Kazan
became Russian in 1552, Astrakhan in 1554, and the
Crimea no earlier than 1 783.

Such is the view we take of the Turkish period as op-
posed to the Russian ; the Russian being the present, the
Turkish being the penultimate, one.

What was the state of things before the development
of the Khanates, the Khanates of the Turkish period,
the Khanates of the successors of Timur or Tamerlane ?

The Khanates arose out of the Kiptshak; the Kipt-
shak being the name for the state of things that origin-
ated in the first third of the 13th century — say, A.D.
1230.

For the Khanates substitute the Kiptshak; for the
Turks (as opposed to the Mongolians), the Mongolians
(as opposed to the Turks) ; for Timur (or Tamerlane),
Dzhindzhiz-khan ; and you have the difference between
the Mongol period and the Turk — the Mongol period of
the thirteenth and fourteenth, and the Turk of the fif-
teenth and following centuries, the Mongol period with
its population akin to the Kalmuks, and the Turk with
its tribes allied to the Osmanlis. Whatever else we may

G 3

130 THE TURKS OF THE KHANATES.

confound, let us clearly distinguish between these two
epochs ; and in order to do so, let us remember that there
is much that may mislead us. In the first place, there is
the term Tartar applied, in nine cases out of ten, to
Turks and Mongolians equally. Then, there is the Great
Mogul of our Indian Empire, who, name for name, is
neither more nor less than the Great Mongol. Yet he
is no Mongol at all, but a potentate of Turk extraction.
Then there is the word Turk, with its English sense,
meaning a Turk of Constantinople; and, besides this,
there is the term Tartar with its Russian signification.
This means a Turk of one of the Khanates under notice.
It is this Russian use of the word which hampers the
ethnologist. He cannot, when writing of Russia, do other-
wise than talk occasionally as the Russians do themselves.
Hence he is tempted to write about Tartars. Were it
not for this, he would eschew the word altogether.

The present writer will use it as little as he can help.
The population under notice he will call Turks; and the
Turks of Constantinople, Osmanlis; the Mongolians,
Mongols or Kalmuks.

A great deal is occasionally said about the early sub-
ordination of Russia to the Tartars. In many cases,
these Tartars are Mongols.

A great deal is occasionally said about the early sub-
ordination of Russia to the Mongols. In many cases,
these Mongols are Turks. This shews the amount of
care required for the minute ethnology of the parts under
notice, care which will often go unrewarded; inasmuch
as, when all has been done that learning and criticism
can do towards the disentanglement of the Turco-Mongo-

THE TURKS OF THE KHANATES. 131

lian complexities, much that is wholly incapable of
analysis and separation will remain. We find this even
in the Kiptshak period.

The history of the Kiptshak is that of Dzhindzhiz-khan
and his successors, of whom the current history is as fol-
lows. The chief of a small and single tribe of the part
to the west of the Chinese Wall, a tribe which bore the
specific name of Mongol, just as some particular tribe of
ancient Germany bore the name of Angle, having been
deprived in his youth of certain hereditary rights, de-
voted his manhood to the recovery of them — to their
recovery, and something more. He subdued the tribes
around him, and became the consolidator of a vast con-
federation. He added to this, populations other than
Mongol, either in the limited or its wider sense of the
word. Members of the great Turk family, from the
south and west, joined his standard. Possibly, Timgu-
sians and Ugrians may have done so also. It is certain,
however, that his armies were heterogeneous, and that
the Turk elements therein were well-nigh as important
as the proper Mongol. With these he went forth to con-
quer, and struck on all sides with his double-edged
sword — one of the most ruthless devastators that the
world has seen. He struck in the direction of the Pa-
cific, and conquered the northern half of China. He
struck in the direction of India, and conquered the pre-
sent Chinese Tartary. He struck in the direction of
Persia, crossed the Oxus, and ravaged Balk, Cabul, Kho-
rasan, and Armenia : lastly, he struck in the direction
of Europe and overran the countries between the Yaik
and Volga, the countries between the Volga and the

132 THE KIPTSHAK.

Dnieper, the countries between the Dnieper and the Elbe.
He, or his successors, had overrun Kussia, Bulgaria, Po-
land, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Moravia, and part of Silesia, before
a check given to the Germans and Slavonians at Liegnitz
arrested the career of barbarism and conquest — conquests
which the current historian invests with an incredible
amount of havock and cruelty. As they "advanced far-
ther from home, and left their deserts behind, the course
of their march through more populous regions was marked
by the burnings of the cities, the devastation and ruin
of the country, and the slaughter of all the inhabitants
whom they did not carry off to sell as slaves. Their uni-
form plan was to convert the fields into a desert, and to
leave behind them no human being that could rise on
their rear, that could offer a moment's annoyance, or oc-
casion the slightest risk to the invaders. By the bar-
barity of their massacres, in which age, and sex, and
condition were alike disregarded, they spread horror and
dismay around them on every side, and to remote regions."
This is language of the historian of India under the
two first princes of the house of Timur. It is language
that stimulates the imagination, and shocks the feeling.
Gibbon s does the same. No sooner had Octai, the mi-
nister, and one of the immediate successors of Dzhindzhiz,
" subverted the northern empire of China than he re-
solved to visit with his arms the most remote countries of
the west. Fifteen hundred thousand Moguls and Tartars
were inscribed on the military roll ; of these the great
Khan selected a third, which he entrusted to the com-
mand of his nephew, Batou, the son of Tuli, who reigned
over his father's conquests to the north of the Caspian

THE KIPTSHAK. 133

Sea. After a festival of forty days, Batou set forwards
on this great expedition ; and such was the speed and
ardour of his innumerable squadrons, that in less than six
years they had measured a line of ninety degrees of
longitude, a fourth part of the circumference of the globe.
The great rivers of Asia and Europe, the Volga and
Kama, the Don and Borysthenes, the Vistula and Danube,
they either swam with their horses or passed on the ice,
or traversed in leathern boats which followed the camp,
and transported their waggons and artillery. By the
first victories of Batou, the remains of national freedom
were eradicated in the immense plains of Turkestan and
Kipzak. In his rapid progress he overran the king-
doms as they are now styled of Astracan and Cazan, and
the troops which he detached towards Mount Caucasus
explored the most secret recesses of Georgia and Circassia.
The civil discord of the great dukes or princes of Russia
betrayed their country to the Tartars. They spread from
Livonia to the Black Sea, and both Moscow and Kiow,
the modern and the ancient capitals, were reduced to
ashes ; a temporary ruin, less fatal than the deep and
perhaps indelible mark which a servitude of two hundred
years has imprinted on the character of the Russians.
The Tartars ravaged with equal fury the countries which
they hoped to possess, and those which they were hastening
to leave. From the permanent conquest of Russia, they
made a deadly though transient inroad into the heart of
Poland, and as far as the borders of Germany. The
cities of Lublin and Cracow were obliterated ; they ap-
proached the shores of the Baltic, and in the battle of
Lignitz they defeated the dukes of Silesia, the Polish

134 THE KIPTSHAK.

palatines, and the great master of the Teutonic order,
and filled nine sacks with the right ears of the slain.
From Lignitz, the extreme point of their western march,
they turned aside to the invasion of Hungary ; and the
presence or spirit of Batou inspired the host of five hun-
dred thousand men. The Carpathian hills could not be
long imj3ervious to their divided columns, and their ap-
proach had been fondly disbelieved till it was irresistibly
felt. The King, Bela the Fourth, assembled the military
force of his counts and bishops ; but he had alienated the
nation by adopting a vagrant horde of forty thousand
families of Cumans, and these savage guests were pro-
voked to revolt by the suspicion of treachery and the
murder of their prince. The whole coimtry north of the
Danube was lost in a day, and depopulated in a summer ;
and the ruins of cities and churches were overspread with
the bones of the natives, who expiated the sins of their
Turkish ancestors. An ecclesiastic, who fled from the
sack of Waradin, describes the calamities which he had
seen or suffered ; and the sanguinary rage of sieges and
battles is far less atrocious than the treatment of the
fugitives, who had been allured from the woods, under a
promise of peace and pardon, and who were coolly slaugh-
tered as soon as they had performed the labours of the
harvest and vintage. In the winter the Tartars passed
the Danube on the ice, and advanced to Gran or Stride-
nium, a German colony, and the metropolis of the king-
dom. Thirty engines were planted against the walls, the
ditches were filled with sacks of earth and dead bodies,
and after a promiscuous massacre three hundred noble
matrons were slain in the presence of the Khan. Of all

THE KIPTSHAK. 135

the cities and fortresses of Hungary, three alone sur-
vived the Tartar invasion, and the unfortunate Bela hid
his head among the islands of the Adriatic.

" The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage
hostility : a Russian fugitive carried the alarm to Sweden
and the remote nations of the Baltic, and the ocean
trembled at the apj>roach of the Tartars ; whom their fear
and ignorance were inclined to separate from the human
species." {Gibbon's Decline and Fall)

No wonder, if these accounts be true, that whenever
any nation beyond the confines of Mongolia presents a
notable amount of flattened faces, glabrous skins, oblique
eyes, or the like, the hypothesis of a Mongolian inter-
mixture should be resorted to. Their armies were of
inconceivable magnitude ; the opponents were reduced to
fractions of their former selves.

Again — and this is a fact with a similar bearing in
ethnology — so good an authority as Mr. Erskine adopts
the statement, that when Dzhindzhiz " deputed his sons
or generals to govern any of the conquered countries, and
in this policy he was imitated by his successors, he sent
along with them an ulus, or tuman, or some Moghul
tribe, or division of a tribe, to overawe the conquered.
The Moghul tribe so employed received an allotment of
country, and placed themselves, with their families and
flocks, in the pasture-range of the tribes amongst whom
they were sent. By the inevitable intercourse that takes
place between persons living under the same govern-
ment, near to and in habits of intercourse with each — by
intermarriages — by traffic, and in other ways, a con-
siderable mixture of the two races took place, which

136 THE KIPTSHAK.

shewed itself both in their language, and in their features
and bodily appearance."

To return, however, to the special history of what is
now the Kiptshak (or western division of the great
Mongol Empire), but what will afterwards become the
Khanates : the eldest of the sons of Dzhendzhiz was
Dzhudzhi, who died prematurely, when his portion was
transferred to his son Batu, or Batu-Khan. He it was
who conquered Russia, and made his way so far west-
wards as Silesia. During this expedition his brother
Sheibani, having distinguished himself, was rewarded by
a grant of certain extensive provinces, conquered " from
the Russians and other Christians, with a sufficient num-
ber of the Kuris, Naiman, Karlik, and Oighur tribes, to
keep them in subjection."*

By A.D. 1375, all was confusion in the Kiptshak ;
and when Timur had risen to power in the parts beyond
the Oxus, he found that two rivals, Urus and Toktamish,
were quarrelling for the dignity of Khan of the Kiptshak.
The latter being worsted, appealed to Tiniur for help, who
gave it and seated him on the throne of Serai, on the
Volga, and then proceeded to favour further discord, by
raising successively, as Anti-Khans, Timur-Kutk, and
Kaurtshik. Civil war, and such help as Timur's, soon
broke the family of Batou and Dzhudzhi, and, though a
Great Khan was nominally acknowledged, it was only in
name that he was a Khan at all.

The eastern third of the Kiptshak became divided
between the Khan of Tura and the Uzbeks. Of this
we have but little to say at present.

* Erskine — History of India, frc, vol. i., p. 26.

KHANATE OF KAZAN. 137

The western parts, to which "Russia, Poland, and Lithu-
ania belonged, will be noticed when we come to the Sla-
vonic stock.

The central parts — the parts which now command our
attention — fell into the three Khanates already indicated.

The Tartars (so called) of the Khanate of Kazan. —
The Turks of this division are distributed not only over
the Government of Kazan, but, in the following num-
bers, over those of —

Permia 17,271

Viatka 57,944

Simbirsk 87,730

Orenburg 230,080

To which add in Kazan itself 308,574

The present town of Kazan is either the most Asiatic
of European or the most European of Asiatic cities. Of
a population of more than 50,000, two-thirds are Rus-
sian, one-third Turk — the latter being apart and in the
so-called Tartar town. No longer the metropolis of a
Khanate, it is still a town full (comparatively speaking)
of trade, industry, and intelligence. Its University is
the great seminary for missionaries and propaganda-
agents, for the religious and political designs of Russia
in the direction of the east. For hemp, flax, and corn, it
is a mart ; and for curriery and tanning, a manufacturing
town. The province, too, is the centre of the oak-tree
district of Russia ; the zone between 53 and 56 N.L.
being the tract where that tree preponderates — prepon-
derates to the exclusion of the firs and pines of the north,
the pines of the south, and the beeches of Caucasus.
Kazan is the great imperial forest for the Russian navy.

133 KHANATE OF KAZAN.

All travellers speak well of the Kazan Tartars — or
Turks, as the ethnologist loves to call them. In the towns
they have wholly sunk their originally nomadic character,
and are as truly industrial as so many Jews, Armenians,
or Anglo-Saxons. In the country, some of the old cha-
racteristics keep their ground. Yet, in the country, they
are hard-working farmers — though shepherds and bee-
masters also. In both they are zealous and sincere,
though not intolerant, Mahometans ; less sensual, be-
cause less wealthy and dominant, than the Osmanli of
Constantinople, circumspect in business, and, it may be,
sharp in practice, and suspicious — though more so to
Russians than to others. In dress, they are rapidly ac-
commodating themselves to Russian habits, with whom,
in their domestic architecture, and their ordinary mode
of life, they are favourably contrasted ; and still more so
when compared with the Ugrian Tshuvashes, Tsheremis,
and Mordvins.

If the memory of their former power be extinct — of
which, it should be added, we have no evidence — the
daily experience of the feeling of being a subordinate
population irritates them ; so does the Russian-Greek
ascendancy in matters ecclesiastic.

In respect to their physical appearance, they fall into
two divisions ; are referrible to two types. Of these the
Osmanli of Constantinople, in his most European form,
gives us one extreme ; the flat-faced Mongolian of the
Wall of China, the other : the one with an oval contour
of face, prominent features, not inexpressive eyes, and a
fine manly beard ; the other with a broad and flattened
nose, prominent cheek-bones, and glabrous skin.

KHANATE OF KAZAN. 139

That each of these physiognomies is to be found
amongst the Kazan Tartars, we learn from the evidence
of most observers. Some praise the beauty of both
the men and women, and put their physical good qua-
lities on the creditable level of their moral ones. Others
compare them with the Mongols. A third line of criti-
cism indicates the likelihood of a change for the better,
having gone on since the time of the earlier observers,
one of whom, Herberstein, writes — "Tartari sunt homines
statura mediocri, lata facie, obesa, oculis intortis et con-
cavis, sola barba horridi, cetera rasi. Insigniores tantum
viri crines contortos eosque nigerrimos secundum aures
habent." (Rerum Moscovitar. Comm, p. 89.)

The general doctrine respecting this double type in the
Turk stock has been indicated. It has been indicated
that the Osmanli physiognomy is exceptional, the ordinary
type being that of the Ugrians and Mongolians, or, rather,
something intermediate between them. But in the pre-
sent case there is another series of facts to be borne in
mind. However early the occupation of the Volga and
Kama by Turk tribes may have taken place, it is nearly
certain that the anterior population was Ugrian, intermix-
ture with which was well-nigh unavoidable. If this took
place to any extent, the blood of the more flat-faced
families of Turkish Kazan may be Ugrian on the mother's
side.

The Khanates are countries of which the antiquities,
whether tumuli or the remains of towns, deserve atten-
tion. Prominent amongst the latter are the ruins on the
left bank of the Volga, near the town of Spask, about
half way between Kazan and Simbirsk. ' The town that

140 RUINS OF YRAKHDIOV.

stood here is called by the older Kussian annalists
Vrachimov. But Vrachimov, as a town, is obliterated ;
and a little village, called Bolgary (mark the name),
stands on its ruins. These consist of the remains of
walls, and buildings, and (more important than either)
tombstones with inscriptions. In the neighbourhood
rises the convent of Uspenskoi, of modern origin — of
modern origin, and suggestive of the old story with its
expected grievance. The archaeologist has been wronged.
Ex-corruptione optirni fit pessimum. The venerable
remains of an ancient city get pulled down, and re-
moved for the sake of the building materials that they
supply, and old stones go to new places. It is cheaper to
demolish than to quarry, and Uspenkoi gets built out
of the ruins and remains of Vrachimov. This is why
the old and new descriptions disagree. Ermann finds
but a fraction of the remains that were admired
and described by Pallas and Lepechen in 1768. Tur-
narelli, the latest traveller in these parts, finds less
still. However, enough remains to indicate the early
existence of a large and flourishing town — deserving, in
its decay, more attention than it has met with ; a town,
with its Black House, its White House, and its Greek
House, still standing in their fragments, and with modern
denominations given them by the villagers around —
modern denominations equivalent to the House of Dlo-
med, the House of the Emperor, &c, of the Pompeian
archaeologists. The number of these, however, as has
been stated, decreases.

More important than the walls and houses are the coins
and inscriptions ; inasmuch as these give the date and

RUINS OF VRAKHIMOV. 141

character of the civilization of ancient Vrachimov. The
former are of silver or copper, with Arabic legends in
the Cunc character, and belonging to the time of the
Chalifate. The inscriptions claim a more detailed notice.
Short and simple, they give us but an extract from the
Koran (or a proverb) along with the name, descent, and
condition of the individual deceased — and along with
these the date ; the languages being the Turkish, the
Arabic, and the Armenian — the latter the rarest of the
three. Thus, out of fifty inscriptions, forty-seven are
Turkish or Arab ; three, Armenian. This indicates the
exceptional character of the latter ; but as none are
Greek, and none Slavonic, it shews that, after the native
occupants, the Armenians were the chief denizens — the
Metoikoi, so to say, of Vrakhimov.

So much for the date. Of the forty-seven Turk and
Arab legends, no less than twenty-two are referrible to
one and the same year — the 623 of the Hejra. That
this is not accidental is evident, and, probably, Pallas 's
hypothesis that a plague raged during those twelve-
months, is plausible. It may, however, have been a war,
or a sedition. At any rate, the criticism indicates the
inductive character of the archseology at work.

Add to these, those of the year in question, and they
are dispersed over the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries —
the time before the Mongol conquest, and the time sub-
sequent to it.

Whatever other inferences may be drawn from all this,
one fact is certain; viz., that anterior to the time of the
Mongol invasion, the town in whose ruins they are found
was a town with a trade within the range of the coinage

142 CONQUEST OF KAZAN.

of the Califate, a town with Armenian traders, and a town
with an Arabic, Turkish, and Armenian alphabet.

As Yrakhimov fell off, Kazan rose into prominence.
But there were two Kazans — an older and a newer.
The date of the earlier is uncertain, it was anterior to
the time of Timur.

When the Russian period began, it was the fate of the
Turk to give way. No matter how formidable may have
been the Kazan Khanate to the Czars of Moscow, the
latter won the field; and AD. 1552 saw the last of the
battles that decided the supremacy. The anniversary of
this day is one of the thousand-and-one glorious anniver-
saries which the folly of the nineteenth century keeps up
as chronic stores of national irritation, and it is still cele-
brated— like the anniversary of the Boyne in Ireland —
as a memorial of the final victory of the Russians. From
A.D. 1552, Kazan ceased to be formidable to Russia;
ceased to be formidable, and acknowledged its subordi-
nation. In J54<, the province was made an episcopate —
after the fashion of the Protestant bishoprics in Ireland —
of the Greek Church, and conversion began accordingly.
There was plent}r to do in this way. The Turks were
Mahometans ; the Tshuvashes, Mordvins, and Tsheremis,
Pagan. "What they were then, they are now. Who
wonders at it? History repeats itself everywhere.

The criticism that applies to Vrakhimov applies to
other ruins as well, with a difference only in detail. Re-
mains of the same kind occur in more than a dozen
known and recognized localities in this, comparatively,
unknown and unrecognized government.

There was an early civilization in Kazan — not because

KHANATE OF ASTRAKHAN. 143

it was Kazan, but because, considering its parallel of lati-
tude and continental climate, it was a favoured locality.
The conflux of the Kama and Volga developed the
earlier settlements into emporia in respect to Europe;
the caravan-trade to Bokhara and Persia diffused the
productions of India.

The name of the little village of Bolghari, which we
find in the neighbourhood of the ancient Vrakimov, sug-
gests the name of either the population or the country
under which this trade, with its concomitant civilization,
arose. More than this will not be said at present. The
governments of Kazan, Simbirsk, &c, were once the
Khanate of Kazan ; earlier still, the Khanate of Kazan
was a part of the Mongol Empire of the Kiptshak ; and
before it was this, either a part or the whole of the
ancient Bulgaria.

The Ante-Mongol period of the Khanate of Kazan
was Bulgarian.

The Ante-Mongol period of —

The Khanate of Astrakhan was Khazar. It was
from the Khanate of Astrakhan that the Khazars poured
themselves over eastern Europe in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th,
and 11th centuries ; and it was the Khazars who developed
in the Khanate of Astrakhan a civilization of the same
kind with that of the Bulgaria of the Volga, — the Bul-
garia of the Volga as opposed to the Bulgaria of the
Danube.

The same relation that the governments of Simbirsk,
Viatka, &c, bear to Kazan, Saratov and Caucasus do to
Astrakhan.

The history of Vrakimov repeats itself in that of

114 KHANATE OF ASTRAKHAN.

Okah; the history of Old Kazan, in that of Serai. There
was a town of early importance, and its decay. There
was a newer town that rose on its fall ; and there was the
newest town of all, the Astrakhan (or Kazan) of the
nineteenth century.

The antiquities of Astrakhan are as remarkable as the
import of them is obscure. There was a Turk period, a
Mongol period, a Khazar period, and, in the mind of
the present writer, a Ugrian period anterior to them all.

A.D. 1554?, is the date of the annexation of Astrakhan
to Russia — two years later than that of Kazan.

The Crim Tartars. — The history of the Crimea is
that of Kazan and Astrakhan, with the difference that
it became Osmanli before it was Russian. Indeed, it was
not incorporated with the dominions of the Czar until the
end of the last century.

After the break-up of the Mongol dynasty it became
a Khanate, the change being due to the conquest of the
line of Timur. If so, the first century, at least, should
be either a period of independence or one of vassalage,
more or less close to some one of the Timurian empires —
to some one of the Timurian empires as opposed to that
of the Amuraths, Bajazets, and Mahomets, who ruled in
Rumelia and Constantinople. It should, at any rate,
have been other than Osmanli. Perhaps, it was so at
first. On the other hand, however, I find that the first
notice that occurs of it in so full and voluminous a writer
as Von Hammer, in his history of the Ottoman (Osmanli)
Turks, is in the first third of the sixteenth century, under
the reign of Selim I., who is made to speak of the Tar-
tars of the Crimea as formidable enemies, but, at the

KHANATE OF THE CRIMEA. 145

same time, as tribes, more or less, acknowledging his su-
zerainty. At any rate, he nominates their Khan. The
history of the times between the obliteration of the House
of Dzhindzhiz and this notice of a state of sovereignty
and vassalage between the Porte and the Crimea, I am
unable to give, and would willingly see investigated.
I can only say, that by the beginning of the 14th century,
the Crimea, or Crim Tartary, had ceased to be Mongol,
and that by the middle of the 16th it was more or
less Osmanli. The fragments of its history that I find,
are the notices of so many murders, chiefly fratricides ;
and its details are bloody and revolting even for those of
an Oriental dynasty. The usurper, the pretender, the
unscrupulous minister, the renegade, play more than
their ordinary parts. The authority of the Porte is a
see-saw — now up, now down — now strong enough to carry
out its mandates with a high hand, now but nominal.
As we approach our own times, the complications of
modern state-craft set in — and there is diplomacy on the
parts of Austria, of Poland, and (last and most effective)
of Russia ; diplomacy not unbacked by military demon-
strations ; diplomacy and menace, diplomacy and intrigue.
The penultimate stage is one of Russian protection ; the
ultimate one, Russian domination.

It was in 1778 that peace was concluded between
Turkey and Russia, and the independence of the Khan
of the Crimea of the Ottoman empire recognized. Upon
this, no fewer than 30,000 Greeks and Armenians emi-
grated to the country of the Don Kosaks, where they
now occupy several villages between the Don and the
Benda.

H

146 KHANATE OF THE CRIMEA.

In 1783 the second of the two changes took place, and
the Khanate of the Crimea, from being independent of
Turkey, became subject to Russia. On this event, such
Tartars as chose were allowed to emigrate, and Anatolia
and Rumelia were the countries that vast numbers of
them sought. During ten years lasted these emigrations ;
and in 1784 alone no less than 80,000 Tartars left their
country.

It is not easy to take the exact value of these evictions,
inasmuch as the calculations of the numbers of the Tar-
tars before the peace of 1778 vary; Georgi making the
number of both sexes between 330,000 and 400,000;
whereas Pallas raises it to 500,000.

But the census of 1796 was inaccurate, and had to be
taken over again. The highest number, however, that it
gave was 90,000. In 1800 it had increased to 120,000.
At present it is (as seen from the figures) more than
twice as much. These give (less the Slavonians) —

Tartars 275,822

Germans 22,324

Gipsies 7,726

Greeks 5,426

Karaite Jews 4,1 98

Talmudic Jews 4,110

Armenians 3,960

Bulgarians 1,234

Mordvins 340

325,140
The Crimean Tartars on the hills live as shepherds and

KHANATE OF THE CRIMEA. 147

herdsmen, rather than as tillers of the ground. In the
plains they exercise a moderate but not discreditable
amount of agricultural industry, in a country where the
soil is grateful and the climate mild, where tobacco
thrives, and where the grape ripens into a vinous flavour.
The -representatives of some of these great families still
retain their own lands, — lands held under feudal or quasi-
feudal conditions; but the family of the Khan himself
removed to Asia Minor on the conquest of his Khanate.
There are a few unimportant points of difference between
the Tartars of the hill-country and the Tartars of the
plains — the herdsmen and the cultivators. Upon the
whole, however, the Crimean civilization, creed, and
speech are those of the Kazan and Astrakhan Tartars.
This is as much as will be said of them at present.

The Khanate of Siberia. — Three Khanates have been
mentioned as having been evolved at the break-up of the
Kiptshak ; viz., those of Kazan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea ;
and for the exhibition of the ethnology of the Turks on the
European side of the Uralian range, this triple division is
enough. But there are the parts between the Urals and
the Yaik, the parts belonging to the trans-uralian portion
of the Government of Permia, the parts, also, beyond the
Yaik and in the direction of Independent Tartary.
These helped to form a fourth Khanate — that of Siberia ;
to which, parts of Tobolsk, &c, have belonged.

The notice of this Siberian division is necessary, be-
cause, although the three Khanates which took prece-
dence in our notice contain, perhaps, ninety-nine hun-
dredths of the so-called Tartars, they do not contain the
whole. We must recognize the further class of —

H 2

J 48 TARTARS OF SIBERIA, ETC.

The Tartars so called of Siberia. — We must recog-
nize their existence, and be reminded of the extent to
which they are, more or less, in the same class with the
Tartars of Kazan, Astrakhan, and the Crimea. But we
cannot, at present, quite conveniently go into their
details. A complication attends their history, 'which
places them along with a class of allied populations from
which they are not always distinguishable, in a forth-
coming chapter. If it were not for this complication,
this would be their place.

Tartars (so-called) of Esthonia, Lithuania, and Po-
dolia.— In the central parts of European Russia we find
no notice of any Tartar population whatever — no notice
of any Tartars in such Governments as Vladimir, Tula,
Kaluga, &c, the Governments where the true and typical
Russian population of Great Russia presents itself in its
fullest and most exclusive development. So that we lose
them as we go westwards. Not, however, for good.
When we reach Esthonia they reappear, increasing in
numbers in the Lithuanian provinces and Podolia. The
so-called Tartar census runs as follows: for the Govern-
ments of —

Esthonia 12

Kovno 415

Grodno 849

Vilna 1,874

Minsk 2,120

Podolia 46

5,316

TARTARS OF WESTERN RUSSIA. 14!)

It is probable that these western Tartars rej)resent a
recent colonization or settlement; in which case they are
as truly intrusive elements amidst the Ugrian, Lithuanic,
and Slavonic populations in which they occur, as are the
Germans of Saratov, or the Swedes of Cherson ; but it is
also possible that they are referrible to the Mongol or
Tartar periods, inasmuch as there is special evidence to
the fact of the invaders (in the Mongol sera, at least,)
having penetrated so far westwards.

Or their origin may be double — partly in the way of
recent colonization, and partly due to the Mongol con-
quest.

As I have not seen any specific accounts of these Turks,
I have put the question in the shape of an alternative.
It may, however, with the necessary information, be a
very simple one.

150 THE TURK STOCK CONTINUED.

CHAPTER XI.

THE TURK STOCK CONTINUED — THE PROVINCE OF ORENBURG WITH ITS
BASHKIR, MESHTSHERIAK, AND TEPTYAR POPULATIONS.

Orenburg is the great Bashkir Government, just as
Kazan and Taurida are Tartar (so-called); for it is in
Orenburg where the Bashkirs are more numerous than
they are elsewhere, and it is the Bashkir which is the pre-
dominant population of Orenburg; each of these state-
ments is conveyed by the following tables.

Distribution of the Bashkir population over the Go-
vernments and districts of —

Orenburg 332,358

Permia 40,746

Samar 15.351

Viatka 3,617

392,072

THE BASHKIRS, 151

Relative amount of the different populations in the
Government of Orenburg :

(Bashkirs 332,358

Turks J Tartars (so-called) 230,080

[ Meshtsheriaks 71,578

634,016

( Tshuvash 8,352

Ugrians-j Mordvins 5,200

(Tsheremis 2,626

16,178

Germans 1,034

Gypsies 85

1,119

To these add some Votiaks*, Teptyars, Kalmucks, and
Poles, of which the numbers are undetermined.

Orenburg, then, is the Bashkir Government, and next
to Orenburg — though at a long interval — Perm. So
that the direction of the Bashkir area is northward.

The Bashkirs of the present century are as truly Turk
both in language and feature as the Kirghiz, or the (so-
called) Tartars themselves. They are Tartar, too, in their
habits ; their industry and agriculture being of a very
imperfect kind, and wholly subordinate to pastoral habits.
They are breeders and feeders of cattle, rather than tillers
of the soil, or occupants of towns ; but they are bee-mas-
ters even more than they are shepherds and herdsmen.

152 THE BASHKIRS.

In relioion they are Mahometans, like so many of the
other Turkish populations.

Bashkir is the name by which they designate them-
selves, and Bashkir is what the Russians and (I believe)
the so-called Tartars call them. The Kirghiz, however,
call them Ishtaki — a form of the name Ostiak.

During the period of the Khanates the Bashkirs were
chiefly subject to that of Kazan.

AD. 1 555, however, three years after the battle which
broke the power of the Tartars of the Volga, the Bash-
kirs submitted themselves to Russia and her victorious
Czar, Ivan Vasilievitsh. He is said to have ruled them
gently, to have protected them well, and to have laid upon
them a tribute of skins far lighter than the one they paid
to their old masters the Khans — the Khan of Kazan (as
aforesaid) most particularly ; but besides him, there was a
joint possession of the Bashkir country by one of the
Nogay Khans, as well as by the Khan of Siberia. Each
of these kept up his claims' on the Bashkirs after the fall
of Kazan, and harassed the eastern portion of their
country. The Kirghiz harassed the south. The near-
est city was Kazan, and thither the Bashkirs resorted, to
pay their tribute of peltry, and to supply themselves with
salt from Permia. At length, however, the city of Ufa
was built in their own land, at once as a metropolis and
a defence.

The Khanate of Kazan and Astrakhan had fallen, but
that of Siberia still remained ; destined to become Rus-
sian sooner or later, but not destined to be conquered
directly from Muscovy. It was previously overrun and
broken-up by the Kirghiz, whose wars were first against

THE BASHKIRS. 153

the nations of Siberia for conquest, and then against the
Russians for defence. The sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries give us the epoch of these Kirghiz wars. Then
and afterwards the Bashkirs became malcontent, rebel-
lious, unmanageable, formidable ; and the Bashkir insur-
rections, three in number, between AD. 1672, and AD.
1735, threatened the integrity of the Moscovite empires.
The first, the rebellion of '72, had at its head the Bashkir
noble Seit, and it is known as Seit's rebellion. For three
years the insurgents, along with their Kirghiz allies from
Independent Tartary, ravaged the country beyond the
Kama, requiring the whole force of the Don, Yaik, and
Ukrain Kosaks, along with that of the Stelitzes of the
empire, to coerce them.

More formidable still was the one of A.D. 1707, coin-
ciding in time with the revolts of the Kosaks under Ma-
zeppa and others, and with the Swedish invasion of
Charles XII. But it was only in their dates that the
movements coincided. They were cotemporaneous with-
out being connected, — had they formed parts of a system
of combined operations, the genius and energy of even
Peter the Great might have been over-taxed. As it was,
the excesses of the insurgents had to be covered by an
amnesty. Of this, Aldar and Kusyum were the leaders,
and they succeeded in uniting not only the whole Bash-
kir population, but also a large proportion of the Kazan
Tartars. The towns of Ufa, Birsk, and Menselinsk were
ravaged, and it was not until the insurgent army was
within thirty miles of Kazan itself that it was repulsed.

AD. 1735, the Orenburg line was established, by which
I mean a March or Border guarded by Kosaks, just as the

h 3

154 THE BASHKIRS.

debateable districts on the Scottish and Welsh frontiers
were guarded, in the middle ages, by the Lord Marches
and their companies. The danger to such independence
as they still preserved was transparently visible to the
twice irritated Bashkirs. A son of Kusyum headed
them, and their resistance lasted six years — 1 741 being
the last year of the last of the three great Bashkir rebel-
lions. The affair of 1774 was a minor one. The Kosaks
of the Yaik, under Pugatshev, rebelled, and the Bashkirs
lent a hand. Since then they have been quiet. The
leading men of the rebellion of '35 were banished, and a
line of wooden fortresses was erected in their country.

Since '41, too, the Bashkirs have themselves taken-on
more or less of the character of the Kosak, and submitted
to a military organization. Instead of paying the tribute
of peltry, they serve as soldiers ; sending an annual re-
lay of 1,500 men to act with the Kosaks to the Yaik.

The ancient nobility is broken, so that the leading in-
dividuals in the different volosts (lodges, encampments)
are the Starshin (judges, captains). With these, the
fountain of honour springs in Russia ; in other words, they
are officials. They decide disputes ; they take the com-
mand of the detachments sent on military service ; they
promulgate the ukases. Russia appoints, and the Bash
kirs pay. Each Starshin has his clerk or secretary, who
is generally a Meshtsheriak.

The great Bashkir locality is on the eastern side of the
Uralian range, on the Upper Mias, in the neighbourhood of
Tshelabinsk, to the north of Troisk. Here there are the
three cantons ; the centres of a kind of Bashkir represen-
tations. Each has its head, elected by the people of the

THE BASHKIRS. 155

division at large. This head resides in his canton, and,
to make sure of his proper bearing towards Russia, sur-
rounds himself with a sort of Coimcil of Russians — gene-
rally (I quote from Miiller) " adventurers of the lowest
kind." The other functionaries are, in like manner.
Russian.

The Bashkir is the settled occupant of a definite lo-
cality only during the winter ; when he confines himself
to his Aut — a village, or encampment, of from ten to
fifty huts of wood, built after the Russian fashion.
During the summer months he wanders from feeding-place
to feeding-place with his cattle, of which the horses are the
most important elements. Of these a Bashkir of ordinary
means will own twenty or thirty ; the richer as many as
500 ; the wealthiest of all no fewer than 2,000. Camels
are scarcer and more local. The extent to which they
are bee-masters has been already mentioned. Their dress
is that of the Tartars with a few differences of details —
chiefly in the matter of the caps. The other customs are
Turk (or Tartar) ; also their practice of the bridegroom
purchasing his bride of her parents, of his calling the
price he has to pay for her the Kalym, of his paying it
in cattle ; also the habit of fermenting the milk of his mares,
calling it kumis, and getting intoxicated thereon, &c.

The Meshtsheriaks. — The distribution of the Meshts-
heriaks is nearly that of the Bashkirs ; indeed, the former
are often described as a population mixed up with
the latter. Orenburg, therefore, and Perm, we expect to
find as their chief districts. And this is what they
really are.

Meshtsheriaks in —

156 THE MESHTSHERIAKS.

Orenburg 71,578

Permia 5,783

Saratov 2,580

Penza ?

79,941

They are Turk in speech, and Mahometan in creed,
though considered to be Ugrian in blood. They are,
probably, too, immigrants — their original locality being
on the Oka, in the neighbourhood of the Mordvins and
Tsherimis.

In the rebellion of '35, the Meshtsheriaks kept on the
side of Russia, and were rewarded by being freed from
their previous tribute, and having the privileges of the
Kosaks extended to them.

In 1770, the number of Meshtsheriak families was
2000, the individuals (say) 15 or 16,000. Unless these
numbers apply to the Government of Orenburg alone,
they have increased.

The Teptyar. — When the Khanate of Kazan became
Russian, a mixed multitudes of Turks, Tsherimis,
Votiaks, Tshuvash, and Mordvins, fled to the east of the
Ural. Out of these has arisen a population which the
Turks call Teptyar — a population which, like the Meshts-
heriaks, kept to the side of Russia during the Bashkir
rebellion, and became a privileged population accord-
ingly. They are Mahometan rather than Christian, and
(probably) Pagan rather than Mahometan. Their habits
in general are those of the Bashkirs. Some of them are
employed as carriers in the salt trade between Orenburg
and Kazan.

THE TEPTYARS. 157

I find no notice of any Teptyars (at least under that
name) in the map and tables before me ; the present
notice being taken solely from Miiller (Ugrische Folks-
tamm,i.} pp. 160 — 162).

158 THE TURK STOCK.

CHAPTER XII.

THB TURK STOCK CONTINUED — THE KIRGHIZ — THE TRUKHMEN — THE KARA-
KALPAKS — THE KHIVANS — THE NOGAYS.

The Kirghiz, or Kirghiz-Kaisak, of the Govern-
ment of Astrakhan, amount to 82,000 — a sum, probably,
given in round numbers.

It is not, however, on account of their prominence in
the tables before us that they deserve notice. In the
Asiatic parts of the Russian empire they are very im-
portant indeed, however little they may be in the Euro-
pean.

It is through the Kirghiz country that the caravans go
from Orenburg to Bokhara, and from Bokhara to Oren-
burg, by the way of Khiva ; so that the Kirghiz country
is one of the roads in the direction of India. Such a
high-way as it is now, it has always been ; the high-way
from the Oxus to the Volga, from the Paropaniisus to
the Ural. Caravans have laboured across it from the be-
ginning of time ; flying masses of cavalry have swept
across it ; armies have attempted (and j>artially accom-
plished) its transit.

THE KIKGHIZ. 159

The monuments with which the whole area abounds
indicate the antiquity of its history ; an antiquity which
transcends the period of written records and coins ; an
antiquity which goes up to the aeras of the great Iranian
and Turanian dichotomy of the nations of Asia — the
Iranian family with its civilization represented by the
magnitude and wealth of the Persian empire, and the
Turanian hordes of nomade conquerors — fierce, barbarous,
and maranding devastators. What Germany and Sar-
matia were in Europe, the Kirghiz country, along with
Mongolia eastwards, and Turkestan on the south, was
in Asia. It was the quarter whence Europe, India,
China, Persia, and Anatolia were equally assailed. It
was the quarter to which one of the two great conquer-
ing families can most especially and most directly be
traced. Whether it was the very oldest occupancy of
that family, is another question.

The whole Kirghiz area abounds in monuments —
even as the Khanates did. They fall into groups, and
that in the eyes of the Kirghiz themselves as much as
in those of the Russian traveller or the English archaeolo-
gist. The Kirghiz, for instance, draw a clear and defi-
nite distinction between those that belong to their own
people, and those which go back to an older period of
which he has no certain knowledge. The former they call
Uba; the latter, Moly. The Uba, or the old graves, are
elevated mounds, as varied in form as our own barrows.
They stand chiefly on hills, and in groups — sometimes as
mere tumuli of earth, sometimes with a cairn of stones
or stone walling super-added. They abound on the
north-east side of the Kirghiz area, and in the direction

160 THE KIRGHIZ.

of the Mongolian — also within the latter. The humbler
and less conspicuous Moly are found in the drier and
more barren districts ; a fact, in the way of distribution,
worth noticing. In the traditions of the Kirghiz them-
selves, the Uba are the remains of a people called Myh.

The same origin is probably attributed to a ruin near
the Mongolian frontier, described by Meyer as being
built of granite, with walls enclosing a space twenty-
eight feet square, and which is an object of superstitious
reverence to the Kirghiz of its neighbourhood. The
same, too, to other buildings less definitely noticed ; but
which are said to be spread widely over the vast area
under notice.

We may be said to be in the middle of the Kirghiz
area when we cross the water-shed between the drainage
of the Caspian, the Aral, and the multitudinous minor
lakes of the basins thereof on one side, and that of the
Polar Sea on the other ; the drainage of the Yaik,
although falling into the Caspian, being considered to be
Kirghiz only for its eastern feeders — and that but par-
tially. The Ishim, however, a considerable feeder of the
Obi, is Kirghiz.

What used to be, and ought to be, Independent Tar-
tary, finds its northern natural boundaries in the Kirghiz
frontier. South of the water-shed there are two great
basins (those of the Caspian and the Aral), and there are
unnumbered smaller ones. There are also two great
rivers (the Oxus and the Jaxartes), and there are nume-
rous smaller ones. There are no great mountains, how-
ever ; for the western range of the Altai sinks into low
hills, no more than 400 or 500 feet high, long before we

THE KIRGHIZ. 161

meet with the eastern and south-eastern spurs of the Ura-
lians. As we approach these two ranges the face of the
country improves, even as we expect it will do. The
streams, instead of being but spring-torrents, rilled by
the melting of the winter's snow, run perennially, and
the vegetation grows green and free. In the central
parts of the waste, especially in the range between the
two great lakes, the converse finds place, and the soil is
sandy and poverty-stricken. The hills and streams de-
termine the lines of traffic.

It is only the northern part of Tartary, no longer In-
dependent, that is exclusively Kirghiz. The south or
south-eastern parts are Uzbek. The valley of the Oxus
(Amour) is Uzbek ; so is the valley of the Jaxartes (Sir-
derla). The Khanate of Khiva — important for its re-
lations to Bokhara, Persia, and India — is Uzbek. The
western and south-western parts are Turkoman.

On the east, the Kirghiz are in immediate contact
with the Mongols of Dzungaria, subjects to China ; and
as some portion of their area extends over the frontier,
there is a section of their population under the rule of
the Celestial empire. Others are under the Khan of
Khiva ; some Independent ; the fourth division Russian.

Except, perhaps, the Uzbeks and some of the Siberian
Turks of the more extreme physiognomies, the Kirghiz
are the most Mongol-like members of their stock. Their
language, on the other hand, is eminently Turk. I
merely repeat myself, in indicating the gratuitous nature
of all assumptions which account for this Mongol cha-
racter in a Turk population by the hypothesis of inter-
mixture. The physical conditions of the Mongol and

162 THE KIRGHIZ.

Turk areas attain, with the Kirghiz, their greatest amount
of similarity. The suggested intermixture is hypothetic.

The division of the Kirghiz is threefold ; and we have
the Kirghiz of the Great, the Kirghiz of the Little,
and the Kirghiz of the Middle, Hord. The adjectives,
however, mislead us. The Great Horde is by no means
so large as its name indicates ; the Middle being the
largest It comes, however, first in our notice.

Its area lies beyond the boundary of the Russian em-
pire, beyond even the range of Russian influence ;
being the most eastern of the three, on the frontier of
the Uzbek Khanate of Kokend. Though not the most
numerous, it contains the most dangerous and savage of
the Kirghiz ; either plunderers of every caravan that
passes through their country, or levyers of black-mail as
the price of passing it unpillaged.

The Little Hord lies between the Caspian and the
Aral — wild and unmanageable, though less so than the
Kirghiz of the Great Hord.

The drainage of the Ishim, the head- waters of the Irtish,
the Dzungarian frontier, the steppe to the east of Aral
— these are the districts of the Middle (the largest and
least savage) Hord ; of which the leading tribe of the
Naiman is under the dominion of China. Naiinan, too,
is the name of one of the primary Uzbek divisions in the
truly Uzbek Khanates of Khiva and Bokhara. Another
name of a Kirghiz tribe of the Middle Hord is the one
of which we have already heard so much — Kiptshak;
a name which suggests the old and difficult question
of the original relation between the Turk and Mon-
gol stocks, and the analysis of the Turko-Mongo-

THE KIRGHIZ. 163

lian (or Mongolo-Turk) conquests. Saving the details
just indicated, so unfavourable towards the Great and
Little Hordes, in respect to manners and temper, the
three divisions constitute but a single population ; the
numbers of which may, upon the whole, amount to some-
thing under three millions ; the number of families, as
given by Levshen, being —

For the Great Horde 100,000

Little 190,000

Middle 500,000

Although, in general, the Kirghiz are of middling
stature, individuals of what Muller (I presume after
Levshen, who resided amongst them for some years offi-
cially) calls "gigantic" size, are to be found amongst
them. The measurements would have been of greater
value than the epithet. A good deal of evidence is re-
quired to make the critical ethnologist believe in a tall
Kirghiz. Their skin is a deep brown, heightened by
dirt and smoke ; the colour being as much the effect of
the heated atmosphere of their tents in winter, as of the
dry heat of the summer sun. Inhabits they are idle ; in
temper, fickle and uncertain. Between China and Rus-
sia, they have contrived to play a part which makes
them distrusted on both sides ; and until the strength of
the latter kingdom was unmistakeably felt, the Kirghiz
wars and the Kirghiz inroads were formidable. On the
other hand, the men are temperate, hardy, and cleaner
than their Mongol neighbours — though still very dirty.
Add to this, that they are thoroughly hospitable. When
they have come in contact with the Russians, and applied
themselves to smith's or carpenter's work, they have

164 THE KIRGHIZ.

proved quick and docile. Their robberies are but little
stained with blood ; and their cruelties but rare.

The Kirghiz recognize three ranks — the nobles, the
free, and the slaves ; and, as part of the system that gives
them their nobility, they attach great importance to purity
of blood and pedigree. The head of each family is the
Sheik The Bahadur is the chief in war— sometimes,
however, called Beg, or Sultan. Sultan is the title for
the kinsmen of the Khan — which is the highest title
recognized. The Khan has power of life and death,
checked, however, by the influence of the subordinate
nobles. To these the ordinary Freeman stands in the
light of a Vassal. Slavery, which is of the domestic
kind, is light and easy. Sometimes it arises out of war
and captivity ; almost as often, however, out of debt.
In the latter case the condition of the Nexi of ancient
Eome repeats itself, and the impoverished debtor lets
himself out as a slave, for a limited time, to his creditor,
paying-up his arrears in the shape of jDersonal service.
Some of the Kirghiz own as many as 20,000 sheep —
an important article of trade with the towns and villages
in the southern parts of Siberia.

Mahometans as the Kirghiz are, they retain much of
their original Paganism ; indeed, they are Mahometans of
the loosest and most imperfect kind. The older graves
— the Uba, as they have been called — are objects of su-
perstitious reverence; and when a Kirghiz dies, he is
generally buried as near them as he can be.

The organization that prevails among the Kirghiz of
the Russian area is as follows:

The divisions are the Aul, the Wolost,a.nd the Okrugi,

THE KIRGHIZ. 165

or the encampment (lodge), the village, and the
arcle.

The Aul (a Turkish word) is under the jurisdiction of
Elders;

The Wolost (a Russian word), under that of Sultans;

The Okrugi (Russian), under that of a, Prikas (Russian;.
The Prilcas is a kind of Divan or Council, consisting
of two Kirghiz and two Russian assessors, with one of the
oldest Sultans as its head, chairman, director, or president.

In 1823, the great Kirghiz settlement of Kar Karaly,
in the coimtry of the Middle Hord. was, (I write from
Muiler, who follows Mayer,) at the request of several of
the Sultans, placed under Russian protection. At first
it paid no tribute at all; afterwards, however, a certain
amount of cattle was to be paid. The president of the
Prikas, Kirghiz Khan, was to be chosen by the Kir-
ghiz themselves, for a period of three years, but to be
paid by Russia. For the defence of the Prikas, and for
the support of its authority, a body of 200 Kosaks and
40 infantry, (with some pieces of artillery,) is settled on
the spot. The locality is one of the most favoured in
the whole area, well adapted both for corn and cattle,
and about 250 versts (a verst is three quarters of a mile)
from Semijarsk, with which it is connected by means of
five Kosak stations.

This represents the later movements of Russia in these
parts. The earlier began about the beginning of the
18th century, and on the side of the Caspian, with the
Kirghiz of the Little Horde. The time was one of tur-
bulence and confusion. On the east, the Dzungarian
Mongols, the lords over a large portion of the eastern

166 THE KIEGHIZ.

Kirghiz, exchanged their independence for submission to
China. The movements thus effected extended over
the whole area. Abulkhair, the Khan of a great part of
the Little Horde, then called in the protection of Russia,
several tribes of the Middle Horde doing the same. In
1732, Abulkhair and Shemyaka, another Khan, took the
oath of allegiance to the Czar. Disturbances, however,
continued. There were Kirghiz inroads upon the Bash-
kir districts ; and Kirghiz inroads upon the Kalmuks of the
Volga ; inroads which ended in the establishment of the
Orenburg line of Kosaks, the event of such importance in
Bashkir history. Then Abulkhair died, and factions
arose about the succession. The Chinese, too, now mas-,
ters of Dzungaria, intrigued. The caravans to Bokhara
got plundered more than ever. The remedy to all this
was Baron Igelstrom's plan, which was, to change the
constitution by taking the power away from the Khan,
and distributing it amongst the secondary Elders or No-
bles. Divisit et imperavit. The scene of this division
was the Little rather than the Middle Horde, which now
ran a risk of being broken-up. Some of its tribes joined
the Middle, some went over to the Uzbek Khanate of
Khiva; some, probably, joined the Turcomans on the
South; finalty, a division of 10,000 families, under the
headship of Bakei, son of Narali, and grandson of
Abulkhair, made its way into the Government of Astra-
khan, settling itself on the left bank of the Danube.
The return of a portion of the Kalmuk population, pre-
viously occupant, to Dzungaria, had left room for them.
In 1812, Bakei was declared their Khan, and has since
been succeeded by his son. Such is the history of the

THE KARAKALPAKS. 167

Kirghiz of the Government of Astrakhan, the only ones
which appear in our map and tables.

The present condition of the rest of the Horde is as
follows: The number of Khans is three. They are
elected by the people at large, but take their investiture
from Russia. Russia also limits their powers in respect
to the life, freedom, and property of their subjects. Fi-
nally, she has provided, since 1806, each of them with a
body of paid councillors or assessors.

The name Kirghiz cannot be said to be altogether
strange to the population to which we apply it; since it
is applied by the Little and Middle Hordes to the Great
one. Neither is it quite unknown as a designation of
the two others. The native name, however, is not
Kirghiz, but Kasak, Kaisak, or Kosak (Cossack), a
word upon which further remarks will be made in the
sequel.

The Karakalpaks (Black Caps). — Settlers in winter,
but migratory during the summer, the Karakalpaks oc-
cupy the east of the Lake Aral, and belong partly to
Khiva, partly He under the protection of Russia. They
are in geographical contact with the Kirghiz; are said,
however, to be no old occupants of their present area,
but, on the contrary, immigrants from the parts on the
Upper Obi.

There are a few Karakalpaks (60) in the Government
of Astrakhan, and some more in Orenburg and Perm.
Of the latter, however, the numbers are not given.

In Asiatic Russia they are of somewhat greater im-
portance ; and this is why they are noticed here. The
same is the case with —

168 THE NOGAYS.

The Khivans. — The Khivans of European Russia
amount —

In Astrakhan to 190

— Saratov 25

215

More will be said about them, as Uzbek Turks, in the
concluding chapter.

The Trukhmen. — Word for word, Trukhmen is the
same as Turkoman, except so far as it has come to us
through a Russian rather than a Persian channel. It
applies, however, to a different locality, and to a some-
what different population.

The Turkmans occupy the parts due north of Persia,
and harass the Persian frontier from the south-eastern
extremity of the Caspian Sea to the confines of Caubul.

The Trukhmen are distributed as follows: in

Astrakhan to the number of 1,600

Stavropol 5,271

Taurida 450

7,321

The Nogays. — Like the Kirghiz, the Nogays are more
like the Mongolians in face than speech, and, like the
Kirghiz, they have given rise to the hypothesis of an in-
termixture. According to Klaproth, whom I follow in the
present notice, they call themselves Mankat — a name
not unlike that of Mongol. In the beginning of the 1 7th
century they occupied the country between the Tobol and
Yaik. From these quarters they were pressed westwards

THE NOGAYS. 169

by the Mongols. From the Government of Astrakhan,
Peter the Great transplanted the majority of them to the
banks of the Kuma and the Kuban, in the present Go-
vernment of Caucasus.

To the north of the upper part of these rivers, between
Georgievsk and Stavropol, the Nogay tribes of the Kas-
bulat, the Kiptshak (observe the name), the Mang-gut,
the Yedi-san, the Dzham-bulat, the Yedi-kul, and the
Navrus reside. The Mansur-ogli belong to the other
side of the Kuban.

The Zhukhan-Kangii and the Kabil-Kagli-Agakli lie
to the north of the Black Sea. Thirdly, we have —

The Budziaks in Bessarabia ; and fourthly, a tribe with
a peculiar and separate histoiy; viz.,

The Kundur, on the Aktuba, one of the mouths of
the Volga. These are called by the Russians the Kun-
dur Tartars. They change their residence with the season.
In the winter they resort to the town of Krasnoyarsk on
the Caspian (there is another Krasnoyarsk on the Yeni-
sey), and dwell in houses : in the summer they occupy
the ordinary felt-tent of so many Turk populations.
These Kundur were the Nogays who remained behind
in the Government of Astrakhan when Peter the Great
effected the removal of the others.

Of the Nogays from beyond the Yaik, it is only
natural to expect traces in parts to the east of their pre-
sent occupancies ; and this is what we find. The
Bashkir Government of Orenburg is full of traces, real or
accredited of the Nogays — the Gorodishtshes being attri-
buted to them. This is a word which wants explaining : it
is a derivative of the word Gorod, meaning town ; as in

* I

170 THE NOGAYS.-

Novo-gorod, or New-town ; and it is the technical name
for such remains of old cities, fortresses, or villages as are
found in the numerous archaeological localities of southern,
eastern, and we may add northern, Russia, The Goro-
dishtshe, then, is the remains of a town (or fortress), so
that, in the eyes of a Russian, Pompeii or Palmyra
would be Gorodishtshes. Wherever, however, we find a
Gorodishtshe, the occupancy of the living, we find, also,
remains of the burial-memorials of the dead. This is
what we expect. The converse is not so general. There
are many places where tombs are found, but no Goro-
dishtshes. Now, the burial-remains of Orenburg, the pre-
sent Bashkir area, are as remarkable as those of the
towns or fortresses. And these have their Russian names
also.

A tumidus of earth alone, or with only a few stones
mixed up with it, cairn-wise, is called a Kurgan;
whereas —

A tumulus with brick or stone chambers, containing,
over and above the skeleton of the deceased, arms or
ornaments, is a MayaM, or a Slants.

In these Mayo Li and Skints the arms are of copper, the
ornaments of gold ; so that the Scandinavian archaeologist
would, at once, attribute them to the bronze period. The
Bashkir refers them to the time of the Nogays.

Again, the division of the Bashkir country is into four
streets, roads, or ways, according to the countries to
which lines of traffic which pass through them lead.
One of them is the ~N ogay -street ; the others beino- the
Siberian, the Kazan, and Osa — Osa being a town on the
Kama.

THE NOGAYS OF THE CRIMEA. 171

The Nogays of the Crimea read the hasty speculator,
as to the permanency of nomade habits, a lesson of
caution ; though it is only what numerous other tribes
do. The Nogays of the Crimea are the descendants of a
colony planted in the western part of the Government
of Taurida from the Steppes between the Don and the
Caspian ; where their brethren lead the life of the true
nomade, with migratory flocks and herds, under black
tents of felt. The ones under notice, however, are as
truly stationary and as steadily fixed to their homes and
farms as the Russian himself, the German, or the Eng-
lishman. So far from their being impracticable, migra-
tory, and unsteady in their industry, — so far from their
preferring the tent to the village, and showing a repug-
nance to farming-work, the very converse is the fact.
" The Nogais are, alas ! the least numerous of the Tar-
tars of the Crimea. They combine the taste for a
nomadic life with the cultivation of the soil. Thev are

at

the best agriculturalists in the Crimea, and they now
begin to settle in villages and to deal in cattle. It is a
pity that this laborious and agricultural population is too
small for the cultivation of the Steppes/' {Memoir es de
I 'Academic de St. Petersburg. Serie vi., torn, i., p. 36.)

i 2

172 THE TARTARS

CHAPTER XIII.

M
THE TURK STOCK CONTINUED— TARTARS (SO CALLED) OF SIBERIA TURKS NOT

DESCRIBED UNDER THE GENERAL NAME OF TARTAR — THE TOBOL, UFA,

AND TOMSKI TARTARS THE TDRALI— THE TSHULISI TURKS THE BARA-

BINSKI — THE VERKHO-TOJISKI— THE TUB1NTSI — THE TELEUT — THE SOK-

HALAR OR YAKUTS.

We have yet to go farther, both east and north, before
we have done with the Turk stock. We have to go beyond
the Obi, beyond the Yenisey, beyond the Lena, beyond the
Arctic Circle. We shall find them on the shores of the
Arctic Sea ; we shall find them beyond the frozen ex-
panse of the great Lake Baikal. They will require, too,
some criticism ; inasmuch as they fall into two, if not
more, classes ; classes that are by no means broadly and
definitely distinguished from each other.

We have hitherto found nothing but Mahometans.
Our Siberian Turks will be Mahometan, Christian, and
Pagan.

We have hitherto made our comparisons, in the way
of physical formation, with the Osmanli and the Mongol.
We shall soon hear of Turks with a Samoyed, a Lap, or
even an Eskimo, physiognomy.

OF SIBERIA. 173

We have hitherto only alluded to the Khanate of
Siberia, and notified its existence. It will now become
an element of criticism of some prominence and import-
ance.

Some of the Turk tribes of Siberia will bear specific
names, such as Teleut, Beltyr, &c.

To others the general name of Tartar will be applied ;
so that we shall hear of the Tartars of Tiumen, the Tartars
of Tomsk, &c.

Each division, however, is Turk ; i. e., the one is, in
reality, just as much, or just as little, Tartar as the other.
Wherein, then, lies the difference ? I imagine it to have
a real foundation in fact, and that the so-called Tartars
are in one of two predicaments. Either —

They are deducible from the most eastern members of
the movement by which Kazan, Astrakhan, and the
Crimea were Tartarized ; or they are emigrants from
some of the European Governments into which those
Khanates have fallen — their essential character lying in
their comparatively recent settlement in the parts of
which they are the occupants.

The others, it is imagined, are indigenous, not only to
Asia, but to those, particular areas in which they are
found, in the same way that the Turks of Independent
Tartary are Asiatic ; i. e., they lie in situ, occupants of
their respective localities, if not from the earliest times,
from the times anterior to history.

For the sake of further illustrating this distinction, let
us suppose that there existed in Germany, at one and the
same time, a population descended from those Angles
who, instead of conquering Britain, stayed at home, and

174 THE TARTARS

also a series of English settlements from England. The
difference and likeness between these two classes of
English, would be that between the so called Siberian
Tartars and the Turk tribes of Siberia.

The parts between 52 and 58 N. L., on the water-
system of the Obi are the chief Tartar (so called) dis-
tricts; which begin when we get east of the Governments
of Orenburg and Perm, and extend to the parts about the
Yenisey. The Tobol, Ishim, Irtish, and Obi are the
chief rivers; and Tobolsk, Omsk, and Tomsk, the leading
towns ; not that these latter are Tartar, but that they lie
in the Tartar districts.

Tobolsk Tartars (so called). — These we find about
Tiumen on the Tura, a feeder of the Tobol, where they
are in contact with a Bokhara population settled in these
parts.

Also, about Tara, on the Irtish; the tribes being six
in number — the Osta, the AIL the Kundei, the Sarga,
the Tav, and the Otus.

The Ufa Tartars are those of the Governments of
Orenburg, in its capital and the parts around it. The
Turks, with a specific appellation with which they come
in contact, are the Bashkirs. *

Tomsk Tartars (so called). — The chief tribes here are
Tshazi, the Ayus, and the Tayan. These lie on the
River Tom, from Kusnezk to below Tomsk. N. L. 55,
cuts their area. They are tillers of the soil, breeders of
cattle and horses, and carriers in the trade with China.

The Tartars already enumerated are Mahometans
of long standing — i e., Mahometans from a time ante-
rior to the beginning of their history. Such being the

OF SIBERIA. 175

case, they may fairly be presumed either to represent the
Tartars of the Siberian Khanate, or to be colonists from
those of the Crimea, Astrakhan, or Kazan — Kazan, most
especially.

With Mahometan populations of long standing, the
comparatively recent occupation of their present locali-
ties is a fair inference. They are either descendants from
the first Mahometan invaders, or they are descendants
of colonists from the other side of the Ural, subse-
quent to the Russian conquest — oftener, perhaps, the
latter.

On the other hand, (or rather, at the other extremity,)
with a population of Pagans, -we have a widely different
inference, though one of equal ease in the drawing. It
is indigenous to Asia — probably, to its actual locality.

The cases of recent conversion from Paganism to Ma-
hometanism are in the same predicament. They may
be dealt with as so much actual Paganism. So may
cases of Christianity, when the converts are known, pre-
vious to their conversion, to have been either Pagans or
newly made Mahometans. This is prima facie evidence
of old occupancy.

The difficulties arise when we have either Mahomet-
anism of an uncertain date, or Christianity which may as
easily have been preceded by Paganism as by Mahomet-
anism. They also arise where there is a mixture of
creed.

The preceding populations created no great difficulty.
What, however, is the case with the next section?

The Turali (in Russian, Turalinzi,) have been occupants
of the banks of the Tura since the 13th century at least.

176 THE TURAB.

When Yermak, the conqueror of Siberia, first fell in with
them, their town was Tshingi or Tshingi-tura. This he
reduced. At his death, however, the Turali revolted
and required a force of Kosaks from Moscow to coerce
them. These founded in 1586 the oldest of all the
Russian towns in Siberia — Tinmen.

The parts about Tiumen are localities for both Kur-
gans and Gorodishtshes.

The habits of the Turali are those of the Kazan Tar-
tars, only somewhat ruder. The so-called Mongol physi-
ognomy is common amongst them. Their language is
considerably mixed with both Russian and Ugrian.

The Turali are imperfect converts from Mahomet-
anism to Christianity ; the Tobolsk Tartars, pure Maho-
metans. What was the age or standing of this Maho-
metanism from which the Turali were converted, I
cannot say. If recent, they must be dealt with as a Pa-
gan population, and, as Pagan, ancient. If of long
standing, they are in the category of the Tobolsk Tartars.

The Tshulim Tu rhs. — These lie between the Upper Obi
and the Yenisey. Their language is said to contain many
Mongol (Buriat) words. It is also said (an important
fact, if verified,) to resemble that of the Yakut. The
Tshulim physiognomy is also Mongoliform. Like the
Bashkirs, they are half nomadic and half agricultural.
Like the Turali, they are Christian rather than Maho-
metan— more Pagan, perhaps, than either. Number,
about 15,000. The Tartars of the Obi lie to the north
of them — the Tartars of the Obi having the same rela-
tion to these Tshulim Turks that the Tobol Tartars had
to the Turali.

THE BARAB1NSKI TURKS. 177

The Barab'niski. — The Doab, Entre Rios, or Meso-
potamia, bounded by the Rivers Obi and Irtish to the
west and east, and by the parallels 52° and 60° N. L., is
the Baraba, Barabinzi, or Barabinski Steppe. This is
the Russian form. The native name is Bara-ma. This
m may be one of two things. It may be a change from
the sound of b, or it may be the ma in such words as
-5/a-rahwas, the native name for Esthonia. In this latter
case it means land; and Bara-mct may be the land of
the Bar a; the Bara (a suggestion rather than aught
else) being Avars. At the conquest of Siberia the Ba-
raba were under the Khanate. From this the Russians
freed them. When, however, the Khirghiz and Dzun-
garian movements began, the Baraba joined in them.
They were reduced at the beginning of the last century ;
having been troublesome as robbers on the frontier. In
1730 the Line (or March) of the Irtish was established.
The cheerless country, wide as it is, contains but few
Russians and not more than about 10,000 Baraba.

They are Mongol-like in feature, with a marked form
of speech, and an imperfect and recent Mahometanism ;
they occupy (like the Turali and Tshulim, the Tobol,
and Obi, and Irtish Tartars) a region of Kurgans, and
Gorodishtshes. The number of their tribes (in Russian
Volost) is seven, each with its Yauta or head — viz.,
the Langga; the Lubai; the Kulaba; the Barama; the
Tsoi; the Terena; and the Kargala.

The Virkho Tomski. — The relations between the Tshu-
lim Turks and the Tartars of the Obi, the relations between
the Turali and the Tobolsk Tartars, reappear on the River

Tom. The Tartars of the Tom lie between Kusnezk

i 3

,178 THE VERKHO-TOMSKI TURKS.

and the junction with the Obi; the Verkho-Tomski
tribes lie above Kusnezk. Verkho means Upper, so
that the Verkho Tomski tribes are the tribes of the
Upper Tom.

The Abintsi are a portion of the Verkho-Tomski.
The Tsumush, the Kondoma, and the Mrasa are their

Rivers.

The Kashtar, Kashkalar, or Katshintsi are, probably,
in a similar predicament, except that they he beyond the
unimportant watershed that separates the drainages of
the Obi and the Yenisey, and occupy the Katsha (whence
their name), a feeder of that River.

The Dzharin (Russian, Dzharintsi) lie east of the
Yenisey, between Karaulnoi and Abakansk, their rivers
being the Onash, the Kom, and the Syda.

The Yastalar or Yastintsi (the form in -lar is Turk,
that in -tsi Russian) are mixed with the Kashlar.

The Bokhtcdar (Boktintsi) are on the Kom, to the
east of the Yenisey, below Abakansk.

The Kaidin are on the same side, above Abakansk

The Tubalar (Tubintsi) on the Tuba (the names of
the tribes, it may have been observed, are chiefly those
of the rivers), are said to be Samoyed (we are near the
Soiot area) in blood, and Turk only in speech. They
are mixed with some of the Katshar tribes.

One of the names by which they are known is Kyr-
gyslar-Khirghiz. This gives us a measure of the exten-
sion of that denomination.

All these are more or less nomadic.

The Belt (jr. — On the right bank of the River Abakan
(on which stands Abakansk) dwell the Beltyr, a small

THE YAKUTS. 179

tribe, possibly in the same category with the Tubular; i. e.,
more Samoyed than Turk.

The Biryus. — On the river so called.

The Teleut. — (In Mongolian, Telenggut.) These live
on the Lake Altin (or Teleskoi), a Lake which has the
same relation to the Obi that the Lake of Constance has
to the Rhine, or that of Geneva to the Rhone. It is
within (or on) the Mongol area, and the Teleuts are sup-
posed to bear the same relation to the Turk and Mongol
that the Tubar do to the Turk and Samoyed.

Such are the minor tribes. We now proceed to a
large one. —

The Sokhalar or Yakuts. — Sokhalar is the native,
Yakut the Russian name.

The town of Yakutsk takes its name from being the
metropolis of their area. The great Yakut River is the
Lena. Turk populations thus far north, and thus far east,
are what we scarcely expect — Turk populations on the
shore of the Arctic Sea and in the latitude of the Sa
moyeds and Yukahiri.

"The Jakuhti," writes Strahlenberg, whose account I
subjoin, are " a Pagan people — one of the most numerous
Pagan tribes of Siberia, and [it] consists of the following
tribes: — 1. Boro-Ganiska. 2. Baitungski. 3. Badys.
4. Jock-Soy on. 5. Menga. 6. Kangalas. 7. Namin.
8. Bathruski. 9. Lugoi. 10. Bolugur. All which to-
gether make about 30,000 men, who pay scot and lot
They call themselves Zacha, from the name of one of
their ancient princes. But the name of that prince, who
headed them at the time when they separated from the
Bratti, who live near the Baikallian Lake, with whom

180 THE YAKUTS.

they were formerly united as one nation, was Deptzi Tar-
chan teg in. They do not worship Bull wans, or idols
carved in wood, like the Ostiaks and Tungusii ; but they
offer sacrifices to an invisible God in heaven ; yet they
have a type or image of that Deity stuffed out, with a
monstrous head, eyes of coral, and body like a bag ; this
image they hang upon a tree, and place round it the furs
of sables and other animals. Each tribe has one of these
images. Their priests, whom they call Biuhn, make use
of drams, like the Laplanders ; they worship the Invisible
God under three different denominations, Artoyon,
Schugotoygon, and Tangara, which three names are
called by them Sumans (i. e., sacred). What Isbrand
Ides (in his Travels, p. 132) relates, concerning these
people, is all true ; excepting the custom of burying alive,
or killing the oldest servants, or favourites of a prince, at
his funeral, which is abolished; but they still own, that
formerly, before the Russians were amongst them, they
were used to do so. They have, besides, many supersti-
tious customs, in common with other nations, which they
celebrate about certain trees, that they look upon to be
sacred : when they meet with a fine tree, they presently
hang all manner of nick-nacks about it, as iron, brass,
copper, &c. Their priests, or biulins, when they perform
then superstitious rites, put on a garment trimmed with
bits of iron, rattles, and bells. As soon as the fields
begin to be green, each generation gathers together, at
a j>lace where there is a fine tree, and a pleasant spot of
ground. There they sacrifice horses and oxen, (as a new
year's offering, then new year beginning in April,) the
heads of which they stick up round the trees, and on the

THE YAKUTS. 181

heads of the former they leave the skin. They then take
a certain liquor which they call cumises, sit down in a
circle, and, after having lifted up the jug with both hands,
they drink to one another : then they dip a brush in the
cumises and sprinkle some in the air, and some into the
fire, which they light up on that occasion. On this fes-
tival they get wretchedly drunk, and gorge themselves to
that degree with meat, that, it is said, four persons will
commonly devour a whole horse. Nay, some will strip
themselves stark naked, that nothing may confine or
hinder them from extending their paunches ; this they
continue so long, till some breathe their last on the spot.
These people are very nasty ; they seldom, or hardly ever,
wash themselves ; they will eat the flesh of oxen, cows, or
horses, but no pork, be they never so hungry : but then
they never mind whether the cattle be sick or sound ; for
they indifferently kill and eat it. If the meat has had
but one boiling up, it is done enough for them; they
never skim the pot, but look upon the skum to be the
fattest and best part of all, and therefore distribute it
about as a great dainty. The vessels in which they
stamp their dried fish, roots, and berries, are made of
dried oxen and cow's dung. Their cattle stand in the
same room or hut where they themselves dwell ; the floor
of their huts is terrassed even and smooth. They eat
bread, when they can get it, but it is no usual part of
their diet, because they neither plough, sow, nor plant.
They eat but little salt, yet sometimes they take salt in
exchange for other commodities. They are fond of
smoking Chinese schaar or tobacco, for which they truck
with the Russians. In February and March is their har-

182 THE YAKUTS.

vest, when the sap rises in the trees; for then they go
into the woods, cut down young pine-trees, take off the
inner bark or bast, which they carry home and dry for
their winter's provision. They then beat it to a fine
powder, boil it in milk, and eat it together with dried
fish, also beat to powder. They shift their habitations
in the same manner as the Tobolskian Tartars do. Their
winter houses or huts are square, made of thin planks
and beams : the roof is covered with earth, and a hole is
left in the middle, for the smoke to go out. Their sum-
mer dwellings are round, and in the shape of a sugarloaf ;
the outside shell of these huts is made of the bark of
birch-trees, curiously joined together, and embroidered
with horsehair dyed of many colours. A hole is also left
at the top for the smoke to pass through. They make
their chimneys or fire-places in the middle of their huts,
where they also fix a pothook to hang their pots on,
which they make themselves, as they also do their kettles,
which have only an iron bottom, the sides being made of
the bark of birch, which they have a way of joining to
that iron bottom so tight and close, that it will not only
hold water, but that the flame of the fire cannot burn it.
They bury their dead divers ways: the most eminent
among them pitch upon a fine tree, and declare that
they will be buried there ; and when the corpse is buried,
they put some of the best movables of the deceased along
with him into his grave. Some only put the corpse
upon a board, which they fix upon four posts, in the
wood, cover the dead body with an ox's or horse's hide,
and so leave it. Some, again, put the body in the
ground. But the greater part of them, when they die,

THE YAKUTS. 183

are left in their huts, whence the relations take the most
valuable things, make the huts up close, and then leave
them. Those who die in the city of Jakuhtskoi, are left
lying in the streets, where they are frequently devoured
by dogs. Each tribe of these people looks upon some
particular creature as sacred, e. g., a swan, goose, raven,
&c, and such is not eaten by that tribe, though the
others may eat it."*

In the Yakut country the ethnologist first finds signs
of America. The name Yakut, unless we have re-
course to the convenient doctrine of accident, cannot well
have been taken by those who first applied it to the
Sokhalar, from any language except either the Eskimo
or some form of speech akin thereto. There was,
at some time or other, someone on the parts about
the Lena, who called someone Yakut. Now, the Ame-
rican Eskimo on the Lower Kwikpak, have, as their name
for men or people, the word tshagut. In the Aleutian
Archipelago this becomes tagut or yagut. I believe
this to be the root of the name yakut-at in Prince Wil-
liam's Sound.

So that yagut (yakut) is an Eskimo word ; and at
the same time a name in use as far from both America
and the Aleutian Islands as the River Lena. How
came it there ? The name was not native. Nor yet
Koriak. Nor yet Yukahiri — that we know of. In the
present state of our knowledge, it is only the Eskimo
tongues that supply this gloss. As far, then, as it goes, it
is evidence in favour of a tongue allied to the Es-

* Strahlenberg's " North and Eastern parts of Europe and
Asia," p. 380.

184 THE YAKUTS.

kiino having once been spoken as far westwards in Asia
as the Lena, For the encroachment which must have
displaced it, we have considerable evidence. The Yakut
themselves are evidently recent ; the Koriak traditions
bring them from the south. The Yukahiri language is
remarkable for its isolation, and isolation implies dis-
placement.

Again — the Yukahiri gives us something American ;
though it, by no means, lies on the surface.

In the Eskimo dialects the numeral tvjo is denoted by
some such forms as malhkhok, maggok, raalgoh, mal-
gukh, &c. In several of the dialects of Western America,
far south of the proper Eskimo area, this same word occurs.

In the Koriak dialects, by which the Yukahiri is sepa-
rated from the Eskimo, no such form occurs. Tivo is
represented by a wholly different root.

In Yukahiri, antachlon = tivo ; no sign of the form in
■rnalg- being visible.

For all this, malg is the Yukahiri for two. In that
language yalon = 3, and yelakhlon = 4 ; whilst 6 (or 2 x
3) is denoted by malg-i-alon, and 8 (or 2 x 4) by malg-
i-allatshlon.

This is one of the most instructive cases I have ever
met with ; for it thoroughly shows the extent to which
the numeration of two languages may consist of the
same elements differently combined. When the names
for two were simply compared, nothing but difference was
detected ; yet the difference ceases when we get to multi-
ples of that number. Is this an accident ? It is cer-
tainly no effect of intercourse, inasmuch as the languages
wherein it occurs are not in contact.

TURKS OF CAUCASUS. 185

If we make a transition from the Arctic Sea to the
parts about Caucasus, we shall get near the end of the
numerous details of the Great Turk stock.

At present, however, we have to consider —

a. The true Caucasian Turks of Caucasus.

b. The Tra^s-caucasian Turks of Erivan, &c.

The true Caucasian Turks are not met with until we
get south of the Rivers Terek and Kuban ; for the words
"true Caucasian" mean, not a native of the Russian
Government of Caucasus, but an absolute mountaineer of
the great Caucasian range ; a man in the geographical
condition of the Circassians, the Tshetshents, the Iron,
the Lesghians, and their allied tribes. Indeed, they are
not met with, at first, even on passing the Kuban.
The southern bank of that river from its bend to near its
head- waters, although Tisrk, is not "true Caucasian
Turk." It is Nogay — the Nogays being only the
Turks of the Government of Caucasus. The tribes on the
left bank of the Kuban are the Navrus and Mansur.
A strip of Kosak occupancy on the opposite side divides
them from their allied tribes of the Mangut, Kasbulat,
Yedisan, &c.

North of Derbend, there is a patch of Turk popula-
tion, the Kaitak, or Kara-Kaitak, of recent origin, and,
as such, not truly Caucasian.

South of the mouths of the Terek, and along the shore
of the Caspian, he the Kumuk.

But the true district of the Mountaineer Turks of Cau-
casus is foot of the Great Elbruz Mountain ; the water-
shed between the Terek (east) and the Kuban (west).
The valleys and mountain gorges of the former are the

186 THE TURKS OF

occupancies of the Basian Turks ; those of the former, of
the Karatshai.

These two divisions are in contact ; but they are both
separated from all other Turk populations.

The Basian are in contact with the Iron ; the Karat-
shai with the Circassians.

The Turks of Transcaucasia. — The lower parts of the
Rivers Kur and Aras are more or less Turk — Turk in con-
tact, and in irregular mixture with Georgian, Arme-
nian, and Persian; the Turk of Erivan, Karabaugh,
Shirvan, &c.

The introduction of this branch of the Great Turk
family is, probably, referrible to the eleventh century.
Speaking roughly, we may say that it came into the
parts south of Caucasus, at the same time that the
Norman-French came into England. The Seljuk Turks
introduced it. These belong to a period anterior to
the times both of Tamerlane and Dzhingiz. Gibbon's
account of them is as follows :

The same great game of conquest and invasion that
was practised by the Turks on the European side of
their area, was practised by the Turks of the south
and south-eastern frontiers ; the line being in the direc-
tion of India, Persia, and (from Persia) Asia Minor ;
the starting-points, Bokhara and the country of the Tur-
komans.

At the beginning of the eleventh century (say when
Canute was reigning in England) Mahmud was sovereign
over Cabul and part of India ; his capital being Ghazni ;
his general designation, Mahmud the Ghaznevid. Mah-
mud was of Bokharian rather than Turkoman blood ;

TRANSCAUCASIA. 187

perhaps an Uzbek. Togrul, the grandson (real or
imaginary) of Seldzhuk, was a Turkoman of Turkestan
rather than a Bokharan. His allegiance to Mahmud's
successor sat lightly on him. He organized the preda-
tory bands of the Turkomans, overran Khorasan, Syria, Asia
Minor (Anatolia), Armenia. Out of one of the Khanates
that arose out of the conquests of the so-called Seldzhu-
kian Turks, arose the Osmanli power ; also that of the
present Turks of Asia Minor, and the Kusso-Turk and
Russo-Persian frontiers. The Turks that the conquests of
the Seldzhukian line, under Togrul (or Orthogrul), Shah
Malek, Alp Arslan, and others of less note may have brought
into Asia Minor and Armenia, may be called the Seldr
zhukian Turks. In like manner we may call those who
were diffused (along with the true Mongols) by the
victories of Dzhmdzhiz-Khan, the Temuginian ; Te-
mudzhin being the original name of that hero ; Dzhin-
giz-Khan being a title rather than a name. The fol-
lowers of Timur, and their descendants, we may call Timu-
rian.

The Turks of the Transcaucasian Provinces of Asia
belong to the same migration with the Turks of Asia
Minor (Anatolia), or the Anatolian Turks. The Ana-
tolian Turks are Seldzhukian. Such, at least, is the
current doctrine.

188 THE SARMATIAN STOCK.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SARMATIAN STOCK ITS DIVISIONS AND SUB-DIVISIONS POINTS OP

CRITICISM.

The Ugrian stock has been investigated, and also the
Turk. The latter has claimed much of our attention, but
the former more. This is because, important as the
Turks were as invaders, it was the Ugrians who were in-
digenous to the soil, the Ugrians who were the older
possessors, the Ugrians who formed the basis of the popu-
lation. Unless we believe that the females of the nume-
rous hosts that overran Muscovy were proportionate to
the males, we must believe that the blood of nine-tenths
of the present Muscovite area is Ugrian on the mother's
side. We believe this to be the case in the more eastern
parts, without hesitation. We believe it also, without
hesitation, in the case of the more northern ones. With
the centre we begin to doubt; and we doubt still more
with the south-western districts. With these last our
doubts are reasonable. They are no less so with the cen-
tral Governments. Podolia, Volhynia, and the Bukho-
vinian frontier of Bessarabia, are probably out and out
Sarmatian — Sarmatianon the side of the males, Sarmatian

THE SAEMATIAN STOCK. 189

on the side of the females — Sarmatian (as a Scandinavian
would say) on the sivord-side, Sarmatian (as the same
Scandinavian would say) on the sjrindle-si&e. But the
centre was, almost certainly, Ugrian.

That the class denoted by the word Sarmatian is of
greater range and compass than the ordinary group to
which the Russians, the Servians, the Poles, the Bohe-
mians, and the allied populations are usually referred,
has been already stated. This group bears the name
Slavonic, or Slave. But, with the use made of the term
Sarmatian, the Slavonians become a subordinate division,
a single branch ; the Lithuanian populations consti-
tuting the other.

Sarmatian means Slavono-Lithuanic, or (if we
prefer the expression) Lithuano-Slavonic.

The present Sarmatian class (I repeat a portion of my
first chapter) contains —

A. The Lithuanians of Lithuania, along with the Lets
of Livonia and Courland — to which may be added the
Old Prussians, whose language was spoken so late as the
16th century, a language of which we have specimens.
All Prussia was Lithuanic as opposed to Slavonic.

B. On the other hand, the Slavonians as opposed to
the Lithuanians are, or were —

1. a. The Bohemians, b. The Poles, c. The Ka-
sub of the Rugenwalde district of Pomerania. d. The
Sorabians of Silesia and Lusatia. e. The Slovaks of
Hungary, who are, probably, transitional to the other
branch ; and, /. The Linones of Lunenberg, whose lan-
guage has only become extinct within the last two cen-
turies.

190 THE SAEMATIAN STOCK.

2. a, The Servians, Bosnians, Herzogovinians, Croa-
tians, Illyrians, Carniolans, Carinthians, Dalmatians.
b. The Great and Little Russians, c. The Bulgarians
(more or less mixed).

A glance at the ordinary mass gives us the area occu-
pied by this vast Sarmatian stock. The considerations
suggested by the Prussian Kassub, Sorabian, and Lino-
nian forms of speech, add to it. Two of them have ceased
to exist within a comparatively recent period — the Prus-
sian and the Linonian. The other two are spoken in
isolated districts; districts wherewith no other allied
form of speech is in contact ; districts which lie like
islands in the midst of a vast sea of foreign dialects —
Slavonic themselves, but with everything around them
German.

The palpable inference from this is, that the Slavonic
area, on the side of Germany at least, has been dimi-
nished, has been encroached upon, has witnessed the phe-
nomenon of displacement — sometimes complete, as in
the case of the Prussians and Linonians; sometimes incom-
plete, as in that of the Sorabians and Kasub, which
remain as fragments of a previous population — a popu-
lation once continuously and uninterruptedly Slavonic.
But this inference is well-nigh superfluous ; inasmuch as
we get at the fact it gives us by a more direct, straight-
forward way. History tells that in the time of Charle-
magne, the Elbe was the western limit of the Slavonians,
and the eastern one of the Germans. The inference,
nevertheless, is worth the drawing.

If we now move to the eastern side of this great Sar-
matian area, we shall find, that, in proportion as we ap-

THE SARMATIAN STOCK. 191

proach Asia, the uniformity of dialects increases, and the
difference decreases — allowing for the admixture of foreign
words on the side of the Ugrian and Turk areas. The
Russian is spoken by more than five times as many indi-
viduals as all the other Slavonic tongues put together;
yet it is spoken with less than half the variety of dialect.
The inference from this is, that its extension is compara-
tively recent. But this is an inference ex abundanti.
History tells us, that in the time of the father of Russian
history — Nestor, the monk of Kiov, who lived in the
12th century — a great deal of what is now Russian was
then Ugrian. Nevertheless, we have improved our cri-
ticism by drawing it.

What has taken place within the last thousand years
may have taken place a millenium earlier — two mil-
lenia, three millenia earlier, or more. And the history of
these periods is open to investigation. History will not
help us over-much here. Nine -tenths of our results must
be inferential.

I shall lay my own views before the reader, devoting the
present chapter to a general view of the whole Sarmatian
stock. Some portions of it, it is true, lie beyond the pale
of Russia, and it is only the ethnology of Russia that the
present volume illustrates. At the same time, to say
nothing about the enormous magnitude and importance
of the Russian element itself, no less than four of its divi-
sions are absolutely Russian.

With the exception of some Little Russians, Rusniaks,
or Ruthenians, under Austria, and occupants of Gallicia,
all the Russians belong to the territory of the Czar.
A large third of the Poles do the same.

192 THE S ARM ATI AN STOCK.

So do many Bulgarians, and many Servians.

So do nearly all the Lithuanians.

The Bohemians, the Slovaks, the Sorabians, and the
Kasub alone lie wholly beyond the Moscovite pale — the
Croatians, Bosnians, Herzogovmians, Dalmatians, Illy-
rians, Montenegriners, &c., being little more than modi-
fications of the Servians.

To exhibit in full either the details or the principles
of the criticism, by which I attempt the re-construction of
the original area of a stock which has not only changed
its localities freely, but changed them in a very compli-
cated manner — now encroaching on its neighbours, now
itself encroached on — would be to write a bulky volume
instead of a short chapter. It will not be attempted.
I shall give little beyond the result of my inquiries; fore-
warning the reader that, in many very important points,
they are widely at variance with the opinions of investi-
gators with whom I differ with diffidence and hesitation.
I shall give the results only — the results, with the excep-
tion of a series of four preliminary statements.

These refer less to the line of criticism I adopt than to
certain current doctrines, which are so incompatible with
my deductions, as to make it necessary for me to ignore
them — to ignore them altogether, and to say that I do so ;
to say that I do so, and to give a slight sketch of my
reasons for doing it.

1. A great many of my inferences depend upon the
fact of the present Slavonic populations of Servia, Bosnia,
Herzogovinia, and part of Dalmatia, being the oldest
known occupants of their present area. A great many
of the current doctrines depend upon the fact of their

POINTS OF CRITICISM. 193

being comparatively recent occupants. The evidence of
this is taken from Constantine Porphyrogeneta, who en-
larges upon the origin of what he calls the Krobati of
Delmatia ( Croat ians of Dalmatia). They came, he
says, from a district lying beyond the Carpathians, near
Bagibareia (Bavaria), and the land of the Franks.

In this, their mother-country, was the residence of the
Unbaptized, the Great, the White Croatians — the White
Croatians, whom the Greeks called A spr i-Krobati, and
the Slavonians iMo-Krobati. The date of their descent
was the 7th century — the time of Heraclius. No early
author mentions this ; the date of Constantine Porphyro-
geneta being A.D. 940, or 300 years after the supposed
events. This alone is an objection — but it is increased
by (at least) two facts :

a. The fact of there being populations named S-rb.
and localities named K-r-b-t, in both the parts about
Dalmatia, and the parts north of the Carpathians ;
the reason for this being the case lying, not in the fact
of the one population being deduced from the other, but
in that of both the names being common to different
parts of the Slavonic area. Constantine's doctrine was
an inference only.

b. The fact of there being special evidence to the exist-
ence of Serbs, or Croatians, in the parts wherein Con-
stantine places them as settlers of the 7th century, long
before that date.

2. A great many of my inferences depend upon the
fact of several populations, occupant of that part of
Europe which is described under the name of Germania

K

194 POINTS OF CRITICISM.

by Tacitus, being other than German ; notwithstanding
the fact of Tacitus placing them in Germany. A great
many of the current doctrines depend upon the doctrine of
everything that Tacitus places in Germania being Ger-
man. I admit that the term Germania is "prima facie,
evidence of this being the case. But (to go no further in
the way of special objections) it may safely be said, and
it is generally admitted, that of all the populations east of
the Elbe which Tacitus, in the second century, called
German, no single vestige appears in the tenth. On the
contrary, everything is Sarmatian. How is this? Was
the original statement erroneous, or has subsequent
change taken place ? No general answer can be given
to the question. It depends upon the credibility of the
author on the one side, and the likelihood of the changes
assumed on the other. If the changes are probable, and
the author unexceptionable, the decision is in favour of
the change. If the author, however, be exceptionable,
and the changes such as have never been previously
known, the converse is the case. Between these extremes
there is every intermediate degree. The changes may
be of average magnitude, and the author of medium cre-
a dibility. All this, however, merely shews that the balance
between the conflicting difficulties is easily struck in some
cases, that in some it is difficult, and in others almost
impossible.

A certain amount of migration and displacement is
necessary. If Germans were the original occupants of
the parts in question, the Sarmatians must have super-
seded them therein.

POINTS OF CRITICISM. 195

The likelihood or unlikelihood of this must be tested
in several ways.

To consider only the question of extent : the assumed
migration must have been unsurpassed, perhaps un-
equaled, by any other within the historical period. When
the Germans of Charlemagne, and his successors, con-
quered (or re-conquered) Transalbian Germany, there
was neither trace nor record of any previous Germanic
occupancy. Yet such previous occupancy rarely occurs
without leaving signs of its existence. Sometimes there
are fragments of the primitive population safe in the
protecting fastnesses of some mountain, forest, or fen,
whose savage independence testifies their original claim
on the soil.

There were no traditions. The supposed conquerors
knew of no indigence which they replaced : no indigen ce
complained of the stranger who dispossessed them.

Saxon as is England, the oldest geographical terms are
Keltic ; some of the original names of the rivers and
mountains remaining unchanged. The converse is the
case in Transalbingian Germany. The older the name,
the more surely is it Slavonic.

The assumed displacement must have been the greatest
and the most absolute of any recorded in history.

Great part of a whole volume (the Germania of Ta-
citus with ethnological dissertations and notes) has been
devoted by the present writer to the consideration of the
extent to which the assumptions necessary to reconcile
the usual interpretations of Tacitus, in respect to the limits
of the German stock with the known state of things in

k 2

196 POINTS OF CRITICISM.

the ninth century, are legitimate ; the decision being in
the negative. For this reason, he abstains from any
further illustration of the principle upon which he has
allowed himself to consider all that part of the Germania
of Tacitus which lies east of the Elbe, not German, but
Sarmatian.

3. A great many of my inferences depend upon the
fact of several populations whose names consist of some
modification of the word Goth, being, not necessarily, and
for that reason, connected with the German Goths of
Alaric, Theodoric, and the other Ostro-goth and Yisi-goth
kings ; and consequently not necessarily German. A
great number of the current doctrines assume, that what-
ever is Gothic is also German. Now, it is a fact, too
often overlooked, that no German tribe so long as it
occupies a portion of the soil of Germany bears the name
Goth, or any modification of it They only take it when
they have settled in the country of the Getce or Gaudce,
a fact which makes the name just as foreign to the Teu-
tonic dialects as Briton was to the Anglo-Saxon. From
which it follows, that all other populations which were, in
respect to their name, in the same predicament as the
Goths of Alaric and Theodoric, were connected, not with
the German invaders, but with the occupants of the
country invaded ; just as the Bretons of Brittany are
connected, not with such Englishmen as call themselves
patriotically and poetically Britons, but with the Welsh
representatives of the original occupants of the Keltic
island Britannia.

In bringing within the same class all the populations

points of criticism. 197

denominated Gothini, Gothones, Guttones, Gothi, Gauta?,
Gaudas, Getse, Jutse, and Vitae, I only do what nine out
of ten of my predecessors have done before me. I differ,
however, from them in making the Goths of Alaric and
Theodoric Gothic, only in the way that the English are
Britons, or the Spaniards Mexicans.

4. A great many of my inferences are incompatible with
the current explanation of a remarkable but undoubted
philological phenomenon ; viz., the similarity between
the ancient language of India and the Sarmatian lan-
guages. It has long been known that the ancient, sacred,
and literary language of Northern India has its closest
grammatical affinities in Europe. With none of the
tongues of the neighbouring countries, with no form of
the Tibetan of the Himalayas, of the Burmese dialects of
the north-east, with no Tamul dialect of the southern
part of the Peninsula itself, has it half such close resem-
blances as it has with a distant and disconnected language
spoken on the Baltic — the Lithuanian.

As to the Lithuanian, it has, of course, its closest affi-
nities with the Slavonic tongues of Russia, Bohemia, Po-
land, and Servia, since the Slavonic and Lithuanic are
two branches of the same Sarmatian stock. But when
we go beyond the Sarmatian stock, and bring into the
field of comparison the other tongues of Europe, the
Latin, the Greek, the German, and the Keltic, we find
that, though the Lithuanic is more or less connected with
them all, it is far liker the old Indian.

Now, the botanist who, finding in Asia, extended over
a comparatively small area, a single species, belonging to
a genus which covered two-thirds of Europe, except so

198 POINTS OF CRITICISM.

far as he might urge that everything came from the east,
and so convert the specific question into an hypothesis
as to the origin of vegetation in general, would pronounce
the genus to be European. The zoologist, in a case of
zoology, would do the same.

Mutatis mutandis, the logic of the philologue should
be that of the naturalist. Yet it is not.

1. The area of Asiatic languages in Asia allied to the
Sanskrit, is smaller than the area of European languages
allied to the Lithuanic ; and —

2. The class or genus to which the two tongues equally
belong, is represented in Asia by the Sanskrit division
only ; whereas in Europe it falls into three divisions, each
of, at least, equal value with the single Asiatic one — the
Gothic, the Sarmatian, and the Classical (Latin and Greek).

Nevertheless, the so-called Indo-European languages
are deduced from Asia; — in the mind of the present writer,
wrongly.

To recapitulate: the re-construction of the original
Slavonic area, as it will appear in the present chapter,
implies —

1. That the statement of Constantine as to the Trans-
carpathian and recent origin of the Dalmatian, Ser-
vian, and Croatian Slaves, goes for nothing.

2. That the fact of certain populations, like the Lygii
and others, finding place in the Gemucnia of Tacitus,
docs the same.

3. That no inferences in favour of populations called
Goth-, Outt-, Jut-, Gutton-, Gothin-, or Get-, being Ger-
man, be drawn from the fact of the Ostrogoths and
Visigoths having been German.

POINTS OF CRITICISM. 199

4. That with two allied forms of speech, one spoken in
European Russia and the other in Asiatic India, the
original character of the Asiatic, and the derivative cha-
racter of the European, are by no means to be assumed.

Such are my postulates — postulates, however, only in
the short and sketchy form they are obliged to take here.
Each stands upon special grounds of its own, and by no
means upon the assumption of the validity of the present
results. These grounds may be sufficient or insufficient.
The reader is .only assured that the writer is guarding
himself against arguing in a circle.

Such points of criticism being indicated, we may now
attempt an exhibition of the original area of the Sarma-
tians in general, to be followed by a similar indication of
the earliest limits of the different divisions of the great
stock they constitute. The period to which this attempt
goes back is a geological rather than an historical one,
and we get at it by that palseontologic line of reasoning
which characterizes geology and archaeology, rather than
by means of any evidence on the part of writers. Indeed,
such evidence is out of the question ; inasmuch as the
epoch with which we deal is long anterior to the inven-
tion of the alphabet, as well as to the existence of the ear-
liest known monument, record, or tradition.

Let us make our date 2,000 or 1,500 years B. C. ;
not much less, because the amount of subsequent change
which we have to account for must be supposed to begin
early. Nor yet much earlier. This is upon the princi-
ple of not unnecessarily multiplying our number of years.

The other families or stocks occupant of Europe are
held to be those of the present moment ; the assumption

200 POINTS OF CRITICISM.

that any one has become absolutely extinct, being con-
sidered unnecessary. It is believed that even the Old
Etruscans are more safely referred to some existing class,
than dealt with as the representatives of some separate •
substantive class of equal value with those already re-
cognized. If so, the primary divisions of the European
populations are — (1) the Keltic, 2 the German, (3) the
Latin and Greek, (4) the Sarmatian, (5) the Ugrian, (6)
the Iberian or Bask, (7) the Skipitar or Albanian.
What we have now, we are assumed to have had 2,000 or
1,500 years B. G, in kind, but not in degree. Some
covered more ground than at present, some less ; so that
there has been both increase and decrease of area. More
than this; one and the same stock shall have enlarged
its area in one direction, and have had it curtailed in
another.

The Sarmatians have done this. In the east and
north, they have encroached ; in the south and west, they
have retreated. Hence, their history is to be got at by
the method of exclusion. If we know what ground has
been lost by their right-hand, and what has been gained
by their left-hand, neighbours, we get the original Sar-
matian area as the residue.

The stocks that have lost the ground that the Sarma-
tians have gained, are the seventh and fifth of our list —
the Skipitar (or Albanian) and the Ugrian.

These will be noticed first.

A case may be made in favour of the original area of
the preserved Albanians being carried somewhat farther
northwards, and considerably further eastwards. I think
it doubtful whether ancient Macedonia and ancient

POINTS OF CRITICISM. 201

Thrace were, at the very earliest, Sarmatian. I think
they were, more or less, Albanian or Skipitar. At the
same time I think that a Sarmatian occupancy, both of
those two countries and of the parts beyond, had taken
place before history began. This view eliminates Mace-
donia, and Thrace (the parts south of the Balkan), from
the original area of the Sarmatians.

The Ugrian area is not only more difficult in its re-
construction than the Albanian, but it is one of greater
importance. The denial of the Asiatic origin of the so-
called Indo-Europeans (except so far as all the varieties
of the human species may be believed to have originated
in Asia) involves the denial of what is called the Fin
hypothesis: this meaning, that anterior to the migration
of the Sarmatians, Germans, Latins, Greeks, and Kelts
from Asia, the whole of Europe was Fin (Ugrian), the
Basks of the Pyrenees being so at the present moment ;
the Basks of the Pyrenees being so at the present mo-
ment, and, as such, the important, ancient, and interest-
ing representatives of a population which was once spread
continuously over France and Germany, to Scandinavia
and Russia, where the main body, though broken and
divided, still exists in situ.

Such is the Fin (or Ugrian) hypothesis; a great guess,
which I once admitted as a great fact. But, though
the Ugrian hypothesis, in its fullest sense, may be unsafe,
a vast extension of the Ugrian area, both southwards and
eastwards, may be legitimate — this being a matter of
degree, a case of more or less.

Ordinary criticism carries it in the south, as far as
the Dnieper ; and I think that a not improbable amount

k 3

202 ORIGINAL SARMATIAN AREA.

of refinement upon this would give us a case for adding
to it the valleys of the Bug, the Dneister, and the mouths
of the Danube. I do not say that the Skipitar and the
Ugrian stocks once met in Bulgaria, or on the Danube,
or at the Balkan ; but I do believe that the Slavonians
which now lie, and at the beginning of the historical period,
lay between them, are intrusive.

Turning from south to north, from the Ugrians of the
Black Sea to those of the Baltic, we may repeat our
doctrines.

Ordinary criticism carries them to the Pregel ; re-
finements upon it, to (I believe) the Elbe. At any rate,
it is not absolutely necessary to make the Lithuanians
of Prussia, and the Slavonians of Pomerania, the oldest
occupants of these localities. I can even see (though
indistinctly) the way to the older populations of parts so
far south and west as the Hartz, being, in the very first
instance, Ugrian. The Sarmatian and German en-
croachments of aftertimes, even with their assumed
magnitude at its maximum, are, by no means, inor-
dinate.

The Ugrian and Albanian are the divisions that have
lost ground to the Sarmatian. Those that have gained
it are the German, the Latin, and (I think) the Keltic.
In respect to the first, it is only necessary to repeat what
has already been stated; viz., that in the 9th century the
Slavono-German frontier was the Lower and Middle
Elbe, the Upper Elbe being wholly Slavonic. The insuf-
ficiency of the reasoning that makes these Slavonians a
secondary population, immigrant and intrusive on a pre-
vious population of Germans, has been indicated.

ORIGINAL SARMATIAN AREA. 203

The Slavonians of Carinthia and Carniola, in situ as
these are considered to be, had, probably, at a time ante-
rior to the spread of the Roman arms, some extension
southwards — some extension, little or much. This, how-
ever, is, in the present work, of no great importance. Of
more importance is the question — what extension west-
wards had the Slavonians of Bohemia and Lusatia? I
think, that before the displacements on the Upper Rhine
and the Upper Danube, effected by the Kelts and Ger-
mans, and before the Roman conquest of Rhastia and the
reduction of the Agri Decumates(Wurtemburg),the Keltic
and Slavonic areas met — the Slavonic reaching as far
as the Rhine westwards, the Mayne northwards, and the
Lake of Constance (at least) southwards.

Such our limitations — such our extensions. What do
they leave as the original Sarmatian area? As a conve-
nient central point, Bohemia? As parts between Bo-
hemia and the circumference —

Northwards — Saxony, Silesia, Lusatia, Brandenburg,
Posen, parts of the Duchy of Warsaw, Bialystock, Grodno,
Vilna. (?)

Southwards — Upper Austria, Lower Austria, the
Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Croatia.

Westwards — The drainage of the Regnitz, Altmuhl,
and the southern feeders of the Mayne, parts of Bavaria
Wurtemburg, the Vorarlberg, part of Switzerland.

Eastwards and S. E. — Moravia, Hungary, Transyl-
vania, Gallicia, Bukhovinia, parts of Podolia, Volhynia,
Bosnia, Servia.

This I submit to the reader as the original Sarmatian
area ; this being very nearly the only portion of Europe

204 ORIGINAL SARMATIAN AREA.

for which I have not found (little or much) some evi-
dence of an earlier and i^cra-Sarmatian population. It
is submitted to the reader as being, at one and the same
time, sufficient for the phenomena of migration and con-
quest which are deduced from it, and also compatible
with the areas necessary for the ethnology of all the
other stocks.

The area that has thus been mapjDed out, is that of
tne Sarmatian stock in general. Which parts of it were
Lithuanic, which Slavonic? Of the Slavonic parts, which
were more Russian than Polish, which more Polish than
Russian, which intermediate? I believe that, with the
allowance of a moderate margin for uncertain facts and
uninvestigated details, these questions are capable of so-
lution.

The Bohemian division of the Slavonic branch of the
Sarmatian stock lies beyond the pale of our present in-
vestigations. Still more so do what we may call the
Rhcetian and Vindelician groups; the groups to which
the Slavonians of ancient Bavaria, ancient Wurtemburg,
and part of ancient Switzerland, belonged. The Polish
branch, on the other hand, commands our attention.

The original area of such Slavonic Sarmatians as were
more Polish, Lusatian, Kasub, and Linonian, than Rus-
sian or Servian, I place in Silesia, Lusatia, Branden-
burg, and Saxony — perhaps in some of the countries
beyond, but not necessarily ; we must remember the case
that can be made out for the lower parts of the Oder
being, in the very earliest times, Ugrian, and also be in-
formed that the presence of Lithuanians in Gallicia is a
probability. We must remember, too, that the present

ORIGINAL SARMATIAN AREA. 205

Poland is a country easily overran, that the Poles who
hold it have ever been an encroaching population, and
that the uniformity with which the Polish language is
spoken over a large area is prima facie evidence of re-
cency of diffusion. Let the Upper Oder be the nucleus
of this family.

The original area of such Slavonic Sarmatians as were
more Servian or Russian than Polish, Lusitanian, Kasub,
or Linonian, I place in Servia, Bosnia, and Croatia — in
Hungary and Transylvania — in some countries, perhaps,
beyond; but not necessarily. I should not like to say,
that, early as certain Slavonic populations were occupants
of the eastern parts of Mcesia and Dacia (Bulgaria and
the Danubian principalities), there may not have been
Albanians, Ugrians, or Lithuanians (one or all) before
them. The drainage of the Theiss and Save is a conve-
nient nucleus for this section.

To the Lithuanian branch I give, at least, the upper
part of the drainage of the Vistula, and the watershed
between that river, the Dnieper, and the Dneister. Some
Lithuanians were, at one time, as far south as Gallicia.
On the other hand, the traces of Ugrian occupancy are
not found south and west of Grodno. Grodno, then, Vol-
hynia, with parts of Podolia, Poland, and Gallicia, may be
given as the nucleus of the Lithuanians — of course, pro-
visionally and hypothetically ; the conditions of the hy-
pothesis being as before; viz., that the suggested areas are
sufficient to explain all subsequent migrations and move-
ments from them, and are compatible with those assumed
for all the other populations both of Europe and Asia.
Sufficiency without interference — this is the rule to go by.

206

ORIGINAL SARMATIAN AREA

It has given us the above-named centres, nuclei, or
starting-points for the migrations, conquests, and diffusion
of our three allied sections of the Sarmatian stock; and
that for the earliest period; a period anterior to history.
If we lay this at 1000, 1500, or 2000 B.C., we only do
so for the sake of fixing our ideas; the date being purely
conventional. Let us choose the last, and carry back our
imagination to the 20th century before the Christian sera.
There is, as aforesaid, no history here — no history, but
so much palaeontology instead. Here we have our sub-
ject in the form that, whilst it most recedes from that of
the annalist, most approaches that of the geologist.

By A.D. 1000, the converse will have taken place, and
the special histories of Russia, Poland, and Lithuania
will have either begun, or be about to begin. The eth-
nological methods will then give way to those of the civil
historian ; inference to testimony.

The ethnological history of the Russian, Polish, and
Lithuanic areas for the 3,000 years that lie between our
conventional date of B.C. 2000 to our real one of A.D.
1000, will form the subject of the next two chapters —
the first of which will be devoted to the branch to which
the Russians belong, the other to the Lithuanians.

THE RUSSIAN, OR SERVIAN, DIVISION. 207

CHAPTER XV.

THE RUSSIAN (OR SERVIAN) DIVISION OF THE SLAVONIANS PRE-HISTORIC

PERIOD — SCYTHIAN — GREEK ROMAN— GERMAN SCANDINAVIAN PERIODS.

In Servia, Bosnia, and Croatia, — in Transylvania and
that part of Hungary which is drained by the Theiss, —
was spoken, at the earliest period to which our inferences
lead us up, a language of which the two extreme forms
are represented by tongues spoken at the present mo-
ment, the third and intermediate one being extinct.
By this I mean that, on the south, the modern Servian,
with its allied dialects, is descended from the language of
the aborigines; and I also mean that, on the north, the
Busniak of Gallicia, Bukhovinia, Little Russia, repre-
sent the original tongue of the oldest occupants of North-
ern Transylvania. These two forms of speech are, at
the present moment, allied to each other; but the lan-
guage of the intervening country is not, at the present
moment, allied to either. It is, undeniably, of recent
origin; the dialects it displaced having been, originally,
more or less, Russian, Servian, or intermediate to the two.

208 THE RUSSIAN, OR SERVIAN, DIVISION

This continuity of the Slavonic area on the Middle Da-
nube is an inference. It is also an inference that that ex-
tended itself. Before the time of Herodotus the Lower
Danube must have been, more or less, Slavonic ; so must
Thrace, Macedonia, and parts of Greece; the Albanian being
one of the stocks encroached on. But the encroachment
was not simply Slavonic : the Geta? of the Lower Danube
I hold to have been Lithuanians rather than Slavonians.

Offsets of these Danubian-Slavonians were settled in
the present Russian Governments of Kherson and
Taurida. (?) Besides which, there were Sarmatian off-
sets on the Don and Volga, as well as in Asia Minor.
Whether these were Slavonian or Lithuanic is un-
decided. Sarmatians, too, had penetrated as far as
India; though, here again, the Slavono-Lithuanic ana-
lysis is difficult and doubtful. All that was neither
Getic nor Turk, at the time of Herodotus, I consider to
have been Slavonic ; Servian Slavonic or Russian Sla-
vonic, rather than Polish. But, as I also believe that the
ancient name Dac-us, the Byzantine form T£eY,-ot (used
by a writer A.D. 1180), and the modem designation of
the Bohemians (Tsheh), to be one and the same, we must
be prepared, on the appearance of the names Dacia and
Dacian, to admit some internal movements amongst the
sub-divisions of the Danubian Slaves, and the probable
intrusion of certain tribes which are Bohemian rather
than Servian. There are some other difficulties and
details for these parts and times. Still, upon the whole,
it is safe to say, that the populations of the parts be-
tween Servia, the Carpathians, and the sea, were more
Russo-Servian than aught else.

OF THE SLAVONIANS. 209

We have considered the directions in which the area of
the Danubian Slavonians may have extended itself. Let
us now ask how it was encroached on. The old and for-
midable name of Scythian now presents itself. The
Scythians of Herodotus called themselves Skoloti, being
Scythians only in the eyes of their neighbours. Five
centuries B.C. they were in the Crimea, in the steppes of
of Taurida, and in the Governments of Kherson and
Ekaterinoslav. They were intruders. Independent Tar-
tary was their original area, and the Turk the stock to
which they belonged. Ugrians of the Don and Volga
may have joined them. In the main, however, they
were Turks. To the north of the Carpathians it was the
southern and western members of the Ugrian that they
displaced ; and along with these the more eastern Lithua-
nians; probably, also, some of those Slavonians of Tran-
sylvania and Hungary, whom we may reasonably presume
to have, by this time, crossed the Carpathians and become
occupants of parts of Gallicia, Bukhovinia, and Bessa-
rabia— if they were not there originally. In the direc-
tion of Caucasus, it is reasonable to suppose that tribes
allied to the remote ancestors of the present Circassians,
were displaced by this great Scythian or Skolotic inroad ;
indeed, plausible traces of very early Caucasian occu-
pancy can be found as far as the Danube. The Skoloti
extended westwards as far as the drainage of the Maros,
in Transylvania — so far, at least ; possibly, farther. Their
northern frontier is uncertain.

I believe this Scythian period to have been of consi-
derable duration ; although the interval of nearly seven
centimes between the time of Herodotus and the time of

210 THE SCYTHIANS.

the next author who supplies us with any history for
these parts, is preeminently obscure. The author in
question is Amniianus Marcellinus, in the fourth century
of the Christian sera. His area is that of Herodotus —
there or thereabouts. His populations are the Alani and
the Huns. They are allied, but different. The Alani
are tall and good-looking, with yellow hair. The Huns,
much the contrary.

The Alani occupied the present Government of Cau-
casus, and the frontier of Circassia: since they are spe-
cially stated to have been conterminous with the Zaechi,
and to have spread themselves in the direction of Media
and Armenia.

The western parts of the Government of Caucasus,
Taurida, and Kherson, formed the area of the Huns.

Next came the Grutungi, conterminous with the Alani
of the Don. How near the Grutungi came to the Tanais
is uncertain. They spread, at least, to the valley of the
Dneister. Here was the "vallis Gruthungorum."

The Thervings lay between the Dneister and the Da-
nube; and besides the Thervings, the Thaifalse on the
River Gerasus (Kara-su). Now, the Grutungs and
Thervinsrs were German.

The Huns drove the Grutungs and Thervings (the
Goths, as they are mostly called) across the Danube —
from Dacia into Moesia and Thrace, from the modern
Moldavia or Bessarabia, into Bulgaria and Ruraelia.
But the quarrels between the Goths of Moesia and the
Romans begin, and the Huns and Alani — no longer
enemies, but allies — side with the former.

Then come the times of Attila, the son of Mundzuk.

THE SCYTHIANS AND HUNS. 211

He began to reign A.D. 433 ; and, over and above the
notices of his battles, we find in Priscus references to a§
many as five embassies, viz., in AD. 433, 441, 448, 449,
450 — this last being abortive and incomplete. In the
one A.D. 448 Priscus took a part. Gibbon has abridged
the account of it. A.D. 448 was the time; and the royal
camp or court of Attila, between the Theiss and the Da-
nube, the place. In A.D. 453 Attila died.

What were his acts and what his power? Both have
been much exaggerated — by Gibbon as much as by any
one. He overran Italy, Greece, Thrace, the countries on
the Lower Danube, and penetrated as far into Gaul as
Chalons. He claimed either a subsidy or a tribute from
the Romans of the Eastern Empire. He seems to have
entertained the plan of an incursion into Persia — at least,
the practicability of making one was one of the topics
winch Priscus heard discussed during the embassy. He
spread his negotiations as far as Africa.

In these we have the measure of his operations. They
were undoubtedly great ; though not greater than those
of other conquerors of the time.

His method was that of a politician, quite as much as
that of a soldier. We hear of as many, or more, embas-
sies than campaigns during the reign of Attila.

The nations that fought under his banner were nume-
rous; but some fought as allies, not as subjects.
" Barbaries totas in te transfuderat Arctos
Gallia, pugnacem Rugum, comitante Gelono;
Gepida trux sequitur, Scirum Burgundio cogit :
Cliunus, Bellonotus, Neurus, Basterna, Toriugus ;
Bructerus ulvosa vel quern Nicer abluit unda
Prorumpit Francus." — Sidonius Apollinaris, vii. 320.

212 THE HUNS.

Between the Scythians or Skoloti of Herodotus, and
the Alani and Huns of Ammianus, we get a vast amount
of displacement ; displacement that refers sometimes to
the Slavonians of the parts about the eastern Carpa-
thians out of whom the conquerors of Kussia originated,
and sometimes to parts of what was afterwards Russia.

What was the character of the movements by which
this displacement was effected ? Were they simple or
complex, few or numerous? Was there one for the
Skoloti, one for the Alani, one for the Huns ? Did the
Scythians come in early, and go out early ? And did
the Huns come in late ? If so, there were two or more
Turk mioi-ations. Now, I state with as much confidence
as a negative assertion will allow, that, whatever may be
the actual details of the Hun history, there is no need of
any migrations later than that of the Scythians to bring
them into Europe, and there is no evidence of such.

I also state, that, whatever may have been the actual
details in the history of the Scythians, there is no evidence
of their having either been ejected from their European
occupancies, or extinguished as populations. The
only definite fact is a change of the names by which the
populations of a certain portion of Europe are known.
Hence it is suggested, that the history of the populations
akin to the Hun, from the fifth century forwards, is, in
the main, a continuance of the history of the Scythoe of
the fourth century B.C. One of the populations of He-
rodotus, a population reasonably considered Scythian,
is the Agathyrsi, Their locality was in Transylvania. In
the time of Attila they appear as Acazziri. Now, if the
Acazziri were Huns, and the Agathyrsi were Scythians,

THE AGATHYRSI. 213

and if each occupied the same locality at times so distant
as the ages of Herodotus and Attila, some member of
the Hun name, at least, was in situ in Transylvania six
centuries before Attila's time, and some Scythians coin-
cided with some Huns.

Why may not even the Huns of Attila be what the
Acazziri were, or, at least, closely allied to them ? No
evidence brings them from any point east of the Aluta.
All that evidence does, is to say that certain Huns fought
against certain Alani on the Maeotis; that certain Huns
ejected certain Thervings from Bessarabia ; that certain
Huns occupied the country between the Aluta and Theiss.
All beyond is inference ; and the inference of the present
writer is, that the Huns of Attila were no new comers in
Hungary. Where was Attila's court or camp ? Not in
Roman Dacia, nor yet in Roman Pannonia : but just in
that part between the two that was never Romanized ; a
likely spot for the remains of such independence as the
Scythian portion of Dacia might preserve, but not a likely
spot for a new invader from the Don or Volga. Was
part, then, of Dacia Scythian or Turk ? Certainly. No
man can say how much. The subjects even of Decebalus
may have been Scythian or Turk, descendants of the
Agathyrsi, ancestors of the Acazziri, close kinsmen of the
Huns of Attila. Such is the inference. If soldiers, why
not captains ? why not Decebalus himself ? There are
those who may think that the notion of Decebalus being a
Turk supplies a reductio ad absurdum. Yet it is only
our preconceived notions that are shocked. No facts are
against it. Why should not the Agathyrsic part of
Dacia have supplied a leader as well as any other ? De-

2U THE AVARS, ETC.

cebaius is a word strange to Gothic, strange to Slavonic,
not strange to Turk history. When the proper and
specific Turks first appear, in the field of history, as they
do in the reign of Justinian, the name of the first Turk
khan is that of the last Dacian king, Dizabulus.

If our reasons against disconnecting the Scythians, the
Alani, and the Huns hold good, they are equally valid
against separating the Avars, the Khazars, the Petshenegs
(to which add the Uz), and the Cumanians.

That after the death of Attila, the political power of
his descendants was broken, is certain. The son of Attila
was not the king of the Huns ; for Hun seems to have
been a collective name, and, perhaps, it was not a native
one. But he was king of several of those populations in
detail, out of which, along with others, the Hun power
was made.

Before this power was extinguished — probably before
it was notably diminished — the closely allied Avars
(Huns, under another name) had conquered Pannonia.
They held it from the end of the sixth to that of the
eighth century.

It was under the Avars that the Turk power took its
maximum extension westwards.

The great name in the east — in the parts between the
Volga and the Danube — was that of the Khazars ; who
are unequivocally mentioned under that designation as
early as AD. 626, though not by a contemporary histo-
rian. The evidence, however, of their power is sufficient
The emperor, Leo IV., son of Constantine Copronymus,
was the son of Irene, daughter of the Khan of the
Khazars. He reigned from A.D. 775, to AD. 780.

THE CUMANIANS, ETC. 215

Much in the same way as the name Hun is succeeded
by that of Avar, the name Khazar is succeeded by that
of Patzinaks or Petshinegs. The Kanzar are a
section of the Petshinegues. Time from A.D. 900
(there or thereabouts), to A.D. 1050. Place — the parts
between the Lower Danube and the Lower Don — Bes-
sarabia, Cherson, and part of Taurida. Like the Kha-
zars, they attack Russia; pressing northwards and west-
wards.

The UzirejAsLce — or appear to replace — thePetshenegs;
their time being the eleventh century.

Lastly, come the Cumani, scarcely distinguishable from
the Uzi. They occupied Volhynia — afterwards, a part
of Hungary. The last individual who spoke a language
allied to that of the Huns — a language of Asiatic orisrin

o o o

— the last of the Cumanians — Varro, an old man of
Karczag — died AD. 1770.

From the death of Varro to the times anterior to He-
rodotus, or (changing the epoch) from the times anterior
to Herodotus to AD. 1770, there was always a Turk
population on the Lower Danube, and in the parts be-
tween the Lower Danube and the Volga. How far they
extended northwards and inland is uncertain. It is only
certain that Volhynia was at one time part of their area :
so were parts of Hungary — Volhynia, however, more es-
pecially. Volhynia is neither more nor less than the
Low German word Velue, meaning a champagne
country — Volhynia being the Turkish or Russian Cham-
pagne. The different forms it takes are Falawa, Falon,
Valui, Valewe, Valven, Waluwen, Valans, Valanie

216 THE CUMANIANS OF VOLHYNIA.

— "c'etoitla" (writes Rubruquis) "que vivoient les Co-
mans et qu'ils tenoient leur troupeaux; il s'appellent
Capchat, et selon les Allemands Valans, et leur pais
Valanie." What the Germans (probably of Transyl-
vania) called Valans, the Slavonians called Polovci; a
word of the same meaning; a word, too, that should be
noted, inasmuch as it is from the same root as our name
Polack (a Pole). Pole is no specific appellation of any
definite population at all ; but only a name like High-
lander or Loivlander. Here it applies to a division of
the Turk stock ; an application which will be alluded to
in the sequel, as a proof that a nation might be called
Polish without being so in the ordinary acceptation.

The Volhynians of the 11th century were the same
as the Polovci, who were Cumanians, who were Kipt-
shak Tartars, who were Turks. But the list of syno-
nyms does not cease here ; they were, occasionally, called
Parthians — " fuerunt Tartari in terra Valuorum paga-
normn, qui Parthi a quibusdam dicuntur." Also, "in-
vaserunt Parthos, quibus Rutheni auxilium ferebant;
commiseruntque cum Thataris prselium, et victi sunt.
Conciderunt itaque de Ruthenis et Parthis ad centum
millia hominum."

This name is as important as curious. Did the old chro-
niclers know about the fugaces Parthi of the classical
writers? Did they tax their memories and talk in the
metaphors when they had savage Turks to speak about?
No. There was a population (I will not say exactly in
Volhynia, but not far from the frontier of those Slavo-
nians who knew the Cumanians) indigenous to the Sar-

THE CTJMANIANS. 217

matian soil, whose name in the Latin of the Chronicles
comes out as Barthi, or Barthenses, and whose country
was the Bartha (or Plica Bartha) "quas nunc major et
minor Bartha appellatur."

Leaving, however, the consideration of the names borne
by these Cumanians, let us notice their truly Turk
habit of eating horseflesh, and drinking mare's milk,
points which all the chroniclers who mention them indi-
cate with horror. Let us note, too, that their alliances are
with the Petshenegs. These it was whose name takes as
many aliases asth at of the Cumanians; the Greeks call-
ing them Patzinakitce, the Slavonians Peczenyezi, the
Hungarians Bisseni and Bessi; out of which last form we
get the name of the great Petsheneg locality — £ess-arabia.
Even in the Icelandic Heimskringla we find a notice of the
country of the Petshenegs near Wallachia — "Pezina-
vollr vid .BZoc/vO-mannaland.'" The Uz (Ob%oi) were Turks
also ; Turks in the neighbourhood of the Petshenegs and
Cumanians; "nobler, however, than the Petshenegs."

The last metamorphosis that this word Petsheneg
undergoes is into the present name Budzhak or Bud-
ziak. This, however, by no means makes the present
Budziak Tartars of Bessarabia descendants of the Petr
shenegs. They may only be occupants of what was
once the Petsheneg country. If, however, they be
truly what their name suggests, Varro was not the last of
what may be called the Trans- Danubian Turks. On the
contrary, they still exist.

The Petsheneg and Cumanian Turks are pre-eminently
the Russian branches of that stock ; and next to those the
Khazars; earlier still, the Alans — the Alans in the part

L

218 THE HUNS.

between the Don, the Volga, and the Caucasian range
— the Khazars on the Volga — the Cumanians and Pet-
shenegs on the drainage of the Dneister, or the parts be-
tween the Dnieper and Danube. The Huns and Avars
were Transylvanian and Hungarian, rather than Russian.
They were, however, equally Turk. The Bulgarians will
be noticed in a separate chapter.

There was a difference, then, in respect to the local
distribution of these names. There was, also, a difference
in time. The Alans, under that name, soon recede from
the foreground of history. They are hard to find after
the sixth century. The Huns, as the representatives of
the supposed power and barbarism of Attila, recede also
— but the name continually reappears as the synonym of
Avar during the whole of the later Avar history. Indeed,
with the German chroniclers, Hun means Avar, and
Avars are called Huns.

In all this I see only an irregular distribution, both in
time and place, of the historical importance of certain
members of the original Scythian migration, complicated
by changes of name in respect to some of the leading po-
pulations. The extinction of one population, and the
introduction of another. I do not see. Whenever this has
been assumed (and I have examined the evidence) it has
been found wanting. The real fact has generally been
that a different branch of the stock has developed itself
at some fresh point of its area; or that the same has
become known to us through a different line of authori-
ties, and, consequently, under a different name. To un-
critical writers all this looked like so many obliterations
of an older population, and so many fresh immigrations

THE HUNS. 219

of a younger one — to match and make good ; and that
such was actually the case, in a moderate degree, I by no
means deny. As a rule, however, these migrations and
replacements were inferential and hypothetic, rather than
historic. That all the Turks of Europe — Scythian, Alan,
Hun, Avar, Chazar, Uz, Petsheneg, and Cumanian —
came from Asia, was known. It was also known that
the same names were largely found in the two con-
tinents. The use that this knowledge would be put to,
in the absence of real information, is clear. It would
supply some speculation in lieu of it. And of real know-
ledge there was an absence. What knew the Greeks of
such parts of the Herodotean Scythia as lay in the direc-
tion of Podolia, Volhynia, and Northern Transylvania?
What knew the Romans of the Dacia and Sarmatia of
the Greek period? What do the Byzantines tell us of
the same Dacia when it becomes Wallachia? I have no
hesitation in saying, that the evidence of the Huns of
Attila having come into Europe is as unsatisfactory as
that of the Skoloti of Herodotus having ever got out of
it. No good evidence brings the former from any point
east of the Aluta. All that evidence does, is to say that
certain Huns fought against certain Alans on the Mtpotis;
that certain Huns ejected certain Thervings from Bessa-
rabia; that certain Huns occupied the country between
the Aluta and Theiss. All beyond is inference; and the
inference of the present writer is, that the Huns of Attila
were no new-comers in Hungary. Where was Attila's
court or camp? Not in Roman Dacia, nor yet in Roman
Pannonia; but just in that part between the two tha
was never Romanized, a likely spot for the remains of

L 2

220 THE GERMAN PERIOD.

such independence as the Scythian portion of Dacia
might preserve, but not a likely spot for a new invader
from the Don or Volga.

Upon the whole I hold, that, allowing for certain minor
details on the frontier of Europe and Asia, the history of
the Scythians, Huns, Avars, Petshenegs, and Cumanians,
is one; and that it is the history of a population, not in-
deed indigenous to Europe, but European from the time
of Herodotus downwards. With this suggestion I close
the notice of the Trans-Danubian Turks; and go back to
the times that come after its commencement.

There was the Greek period, which was of more im-
portance in the history of civilization than in ethnology.
However, it gave us the colonies of the Black Sea; not
always direct from Greece, but rather from Asia Minor.

There was the Roman period, which began with the
reduction of Pannonia, and ended with that of Dacia.

There was the German period; important, but obscure.

I imagine that, some time subsequent to the conquest of

Pannonia, certain Germans from Thuringia found their

way down the Danube, settled, either independent of any

foreign persuasion or as Roman mercenaries, on certain

Pannonian and Dacian frontiers, and stayed there until

they were ejected by the Huns. The Thervings and Gru-

tungs, whom we have seen in the valley of the Dneister,

were in this predicament; probably, the Marcomanni of

Moravia also. As these Trans-Danubian Germans passed

the river and appeared in the country of the Getce, they

got called Goths. Until then, they were as little Goth be

as Egbert and Alfred were British. I have stated this

before ; I state it again. I draw all the attention I can

THE TERM RUS. 221

command to the doctrine. Nine-tenths of the points
whereon I disagree with the current doctrine, turn upon
it. On the other hand, an equal amount of the ordinary-
teaching must fall when the assumption that any German
tribes ever called itself Goth-, Get-, Gott-, Gut-, or by any
similar name, is shewn to be groundless.

The two great displacements were the Turk and the
Roman. The latter displaced the original Slavonic (not
unmixed with Turkish) of Transylvania and the Da-
nubian Principalities, and, by doing this, separated the
Russian, Ruthenian, or Rusniak Slavonians of the Carpa-
thians from the Servians of Servia.

From the Upper Dneister, Lodomiria, Bukhovinia,
and the north of Bessarabia, the Slavonian line of en-
croachment moves northwards and eastwards, the area
upon which it encroaches being Turk, with fragments
(perhaps) of the original population interspersed. This
was either Ugrian or Lithuanian — perhaps both. By
AD. 800, the Dnieper is Slavonic (this is the better term
here), and Kiev is a Slavonic town — Slavonic in the way
that the parts north of the Carpathians were Slavonic.

By A.D. 800, too, the parts about the Ilmen-Lake, or
the valley of the Volok, were Russian (this is the better
term here) ; Novogorod being, for these parts, what Kiev
was for the banks of the Dnieper.

Novogorod was Russian, and Kiev Slavonic. Were
they both in the same category — i. e., both Russian, or
both Slavonic, the difference between the two being
merely nominal? It was not nominal, but real. The
Russians of Novogorod were not Slavonians, but Scandi-
navians, probably from Sweden. A remarkable passage

222 THE TERM RUS.

in Constantinus Porphyrogenita, not only distinguishes
the Bits tongue from the Slavonic, but gives the names
of the different falls of the Dnieper in both languages.
The Rus forms are Norse; being compounds of the Norse
word fors— -force in provincial English — waterfall.

Eic rovnifiTTTOv (ppaypbv tov lTTOvopaZ,6fitvov VbxnarX
fiev Bapov(j)6pog, 2icAa€(vt<7Ti $£, BovXvwp^X' (C°n~
stant de Adm. Imp., c. ix.)

Again,

Elc tov trtpov (ppaypbv tov iTriXeyopevov'PwdKrA plv
Oi»A€op<ri, 2k-Aa€tvt(rri Ss, OcT-po^ovvlTrpax- (Ibid.)

Translated—" At the fifth fall, the one called in Russ
Varuforos, but in Slavonic Vulneprakh."

" To the second fall, the one called in Rus, Ulvorsi —
but in Slavonic, Ostrovuniprakh."

If this Russ be (as it is) Scandinavian, and the two
languages meet on the Dnieper, the movement by which
the. original character of Russia was changed into its
present was complex ; i. e., there was the movement from
north to south, of which Novogorod represents the civili-
zation, in which the Scandinavians were the agents, and
for which the area was Ugrian rather than Turk ; and there
was the movement from south to north, of which Kiev
represents the civilization, in which the Slavonians were
the agents, and for which the area was Turk rather than
Ugrian ; Turk, indeed, which was originally either Ugrian
or Lithuanic, but still, for the epoch under notice, Turk.

The movement from the south preponderates ; and
when the powers represented by Kiev and Novogorod,
coalesce and consolidate, it is the Scandinavian element
which disappears.

THE TEEM BUS. 223

By A.D. 1000 — say, for convenience, during the reign
of Canute — the power that afterwards grew into that of the
Muscovite empire had its area in Kiev and Novogorod,
in the adjacent districts, and in the intermediate ones.

Its Slavonic and Scandinavian elements had, more or
less, become fused ; the Slavonic preponderating. The
Greek civilization and the Greek Christianity of Con-
stantinople had told on it. Active kings had arisen, and
a career of conquest had been begun. The civil history
now commences.

For the present we pause upon, and conclude with, the
investigation of the name Rus. Originally, it was any-
thing but Slavonic ; it was rather Scandinavian. Does
it appear elsewhere ? If so, when, and in what form ?
It appears as early as the first century of our asra, and in
a Ugrian 'form. Strabo uses it ; and his form is Rhox-
olani. This has long been known. It has also long
been known that- -lainen is the regular Finlandish ter-
mination for gentile nouns ; so that, as Strabo mentions
the Rhoxolani, there must have been, in his time, not
only Ugrians in Russia, but Ugrians so near the sea, or
the parts within the area of the Greek intercourse, as for
words of their tongue to reach his informants.

Tacitus mentions them also.

What follows from this ? One of two things.

The root Ruots- may be as Ugrian as the termination
-alan-, or it may not be Ugrian at all. With the first
of these alternatives, our doctrine is, that modern Russia
has taken its name, not —

a. From any dominant Norse conquerors, called
Rils-; but —

22-t THE TERM RUS.

b. From a portion of its area called Ruotsi, originally
occupied by Ugrian Ruotsolane, but afterwards by Norse-
men, to whom the neighbouring nations extended the
name of the territory.

In this case, the Northmen of Ruotsi are called Rus,
even as an Angle of Britannia might be called Britan-
nus.

With the second, our hypothesis takes the following
form ; viz.,

That certain Scandinavian invaders named Rus had
found their way into certain parts south of the Baltic as
early as the time of Strabo, and that their name had be-
come known to the Greeks only after it had passed
through certain Ugrian districts between the Upper
Dnieper and the Black Sea; during which passage it
took the Ugrian form in -Ian- (lane- or -lainen).

The fact of the present Finns calling the Swedes of
Sweden Ruotsi, favours this latter view. The question,
however, is full of complications, and a third new is
admissible. What if the original Ruotsi (Russ, or
Rhoks-) were neither Scandinavians nor Ugrians, but
members of the Lithuanic family, the Goths of Sweden
(as will be suggested in the next chapter) being
Lithuanic also ? In such a case, the hypothesis that
would reconcile most facts would be to the effect that the
Fins called the Lithuanians Ruots, and that they ex-
tended the name, originally given to the Goths, of the
Scandinavian Peninsula, to the Germans thereof also.

The populations which spoke the Russian glosses of
Constantine Porphyrogenita were German, rather than
Slavonian, and they belonged to the Scandinavian,

EMPIRE OF HERMANFJC. 225

rather than to the Teutonic (or proper German) branch
of the German stock. Their line of movement was from
north to south. Their presence in the parts south of the
Gulf of Finland implies a previous voyage by sea. Let
us remember, however, that they are not the first, but
the second, group of Germans, that we have found in
Russia. Let us remember the Grutungs and Thervings
of the valley of the Dneister whom the Huns ejected in
the reign of Valens. These were Teutons (or Germans
Proper), rather than Scandinavians. Their direction was
from south to north, and their presence on the Dneister
is best accounted for by the supposition of a passage
down the Danube — a fluviatile rather than a maritime
migration. At any rate, there are two lines to the Ger-
man encroachments in Sarmatia ; each in different direc-
tions. Did they meet ? Yes — at least, according to the
common accounts. They met — i. e., the Germans of
the south reached the same point that was reached by
the Scandinavians of the north ; this being the country
of the Rhoxolani. Whether they did so at the same time
is another question. The great hero of the Northern, or
Scandinavian, Germans, was Ruric. The great hero
of the Southern Germans — the Grutungs and Thervings —
the Ostrogoths and Visagoths, as they are incorrectly called
— was Hermanric. The suppression or consolidation of
the minor divisions and sub-divisions of the Grutung and
Therving names increased the military jDOwer of Her-
manric, and "enlarged his ambitious designs. He in-
vaded the adjacent countries of the north, and twelve
considerable nations, whose names and limits cannot be
accurately defined, successively yielded to the superiority

L 3

226 EMPIRE OF HERMAN RIC.

of the Gothic arms. The Herali, who inhabited the
marshy lands near the late Moeotis, were renowned for
their strength and agility ; and the assistance of then-
light infantry was eagerly solicited, and highly esteemed,
in all the wars of the Barbarians. But the active spirit
of the Herali, was subdued by the slow and steady per-
severance of the Goths ; and, after a bloody action, in
which the kingr was slain, the remains of that warlike
tribe became a useful accession to the camp of Herman-
ric. He then marched against the Venedi ; unskilled in
the use of arms, and formidable only by their numbers,
which filled the wide extent of the plains of modern
Poland. The victorious Goths, who were not inferior in
numbers, prevailed in contest, by the decisive advan-
tages of exercise and discipline. After the submission of
the Venedi, the conqueror advanced, without resistance,
as far as the confines of the iEstii, an ancient people,
whose name is still preserved in the province of Esthonia.
Those distant inhabitants of the Baltic coast were sup-
ported by the labours of agriculture, enriched by the
trade of amber, and consecrated by the peculiar worship
of the mother of the gods. But the scarcity of iron
obliged the ^Estian warriors to content themselves with
wooden clubs ; and the reduction of that wealthy country
is ascribed to the prudence, rather than to the arms, of
Hermanric. His dominions, which extended from the
Danube to the Baltic, included the native seats, and the
recent acquisitions, of the Goths ; and he reigned over
the greatest part of Germany and Scythia with the
authority of a conqueror, and sometimes with the cruelty
of a tyrant. But he reigned over a part of the globe

EMPIKE OF HERMANRIC. 227

incapable of perpetuating and adorning the glory of its
heroes. The name of Hermanric is almost buried in
oblivion ; his exploits are imperfectly known ; and the
Romans themselves appeared unconscious of the progress
of an aspiring power, which threatened the liberty of the
north and the peace of the empire."

Such is the language of Gibbon ; based chiefly upon
the statements of Jornandes, a very indifferent authority.
I give it, however, because the name of Hermanric, like
that of Ruric is famous — famous, and, to a great extent,
fabulous.

I give it, too, because when we get to the death of
Hermanric we find it connected with the history of the
Rhoxolani; one of the chiefs of which nation had " for-
merly deserted the standard of Hermanric, and the cruel
tyrant had condemned the innocent wife of the traitor to
be torn asunder by wild horses. The brothers of that
unfortunate woman seized the favourable moment of
revenge. The aged king of the Goths languished some
time after the dangerous wound which he received from
their daggers ; but the conduct of the war was retarded
by his infirmities ; and the public councils of the nation
were distracted by a spirit of jealousy and discord."
(Gibbon, c. xxvi.)

Such is the proof that the Germans of the south, either
touched, or were supposed to touch, Rhoxolania, Russia,
or Rus-land.

Tins is much to say about a name ; but, considering that,
whether Ugrian or Scandinavian in its origin, the word
Rus is now not only Slavonic, but the national denomi-
nation of the most powerfid branch of the Slavonians, the

228 THE TERM BUS.

extent to which it is enlarged on is justifiable. In the
time of Constantine Porphyrogenita it is Scandinavian —
whatever it may have been in that of Strabo.

At present it is Slavonic, so far as it is used by the
Russians themselves ; Ugrian, so far as it is applied by
the Finlanders to the Swedes ; and Swedish, so far as the
Swedes have it applied to Sweden.

THE LITHUANIC SAB3IATIANS. 229

CHAPTER XVI.

THE LITHUANIAN BRANCH OF THE SARJIATIAN STOCK — THE PRUSSIANS—

THE JACZWINGS THE LITHUANIANS — THE LETS THE GOTHINI — THE

INDIAN AND SCANDINAVIAN CONQUESTS.

The first members of the Lithuanian branch of the
Sarmatian stock that come under our notice are the Old
Prussians, though they no longer exist in a separate
and independent form, with their originally separate and
independent language. This they lost in the sixteenth
century ; but until that time it was spoken in East
Prussia. More than this, it was partially written ; inas-
much as the Lord's Prayer and a catechism in it have
come down to us. Their equally characteristic paganism
died away earlier still ; i. e., in the thirteenth century.

If we separate East and West Prussia from Pomerania
on the west and Posen and Poland on the south, we have
the area of the Prussian portion of the Lithuanic Sarma-
tians. Whether, in the very earliest period of their
history, their original site touched the waves of the Baltic
is uncertain ; inasmuch as it has been stated that a few
unimportant details might be easiest explained by carry-

230 THE OLD PRUSSIANS.

ing the Ugrian populations of Esthonia and Livonia as
far westwards as the Trave — chiefly, however, along the
sea-coast. This, however, is a refinement. For ordinary
ethnology it may be held as a safe doctrine, that the
coast of the Amber country in East Prussia was Prussian
at the beginning of the historical period, and that West
Prussia was in the same category. And this epoch — this
beginning of the historical period — is an early one. In
the third century B. C, Pytheas of Marseilles heard of
the Ostiaioi (-ZEstyans) of the Amber country. These
were the ancestors of the Old Prussians under the name
by which they were designated by the Germans of the
Lower Elbe — i. e., a name still meaning men of the east
— say, Easterlings. EasterUngs, too, they are in the
pages of Tacitus, who calls them jEstyii ; only, however,
when he follows the line of the Baltic and uses German
names. When he arrives at the same population from the
south and by an overland line from the Middle Danube,
they are no jEstii, but Gothones. Here the name is
Slavonic.

The Gothones are JEstii under a German, the JEstii
Gothones under a Slavonic name. The fact that both
are found on the Amber country suggests this, and dozens
of minor facts, in the way of cumulative evidence, con-
firm it. Their manners are like those of the Suevi — a
somewhat indefinite term. They worshipped the Mother
of the Gods (Proiva, I imagine), and carry as a mark of
their superstition the figures of boars. Clubs were com-
mon, instruments of iron rare. Tillage commanded
more of their industry than was usual with the Ger-
mans. Amber, however, was what they chiefly traded

THE OLD PRUSSIANS. 231

in. Their language was like the British — the text of
Tacitus, being " linguce Britannicce proprior." The
German who told his informant (in perhaps the fiftieth
degree) this, must have said that the speech of the
Easterlings (or Este) was Pryttisc — i. e., Prussian.

A curious letter of Theodoric the Ostrogoth to these
men of the Amber country, has come down to us ; import-
ant, because it shews that the name Easterling was still
applied to them, even though the letter came from the
south. It came, however, from a German. He calls
them Hcesti, and, by enlarging upon their characteristic
product, the Amber, makes the assurance that it is the
Prussians, rather the ancestors of the present Esthonians,
whom he addresses, doubly sure. Jornandes mentions
them by the same name, But he also places in close
contact with them the Yid-ivarii. In German this
would be Yit-wcere, and the country of the Yit-wcere
would be Vit-land. Now, Vit-land was Prussia. We
rind the name in Alfred, who distinguishes between
Vit-land and Veonod-leaid (Terra Vitarum and Terra
Venidorum), adding that Vit-land belonged to Este;
out of which he gives the compound East -land. Now
F^-land and .Eastland were Prussian and Lithuanic,
as opposed to Veonod-land, which was Slavonic. This
is sufficient to shew that the difference between the
Lithuanian and the Slavonic Sarmatians was felt by the
ancients. If we clear our mind of the preconceptions
that arise out of the root Goth-, and the German asso-
ciations which go along with it, and, if, in addition to
this, we adopt the suggested explanation of Tacitus's state-
ment as to the British language being spoken by the

232 THE OLD PKUSSIAXS.

Amber-gatherers, we shall find that the ethnology of few
countries is more definite than that of ancient Prussia.
Alfred mentions its town Truso, the Drusne, and the
Drausen-see of later times. There were also (he adds)
many other towns in it — each with its king.

Nestor gives us the name Prus ; and, except so far as
it appears in the indirect and conjectural form of Tacitus,
he is one of the first writers who does so — " The Lekks"
(Slavonian Poles), " the Prussv (Lithuanian), " and the
Tshuds" (Ugrians), "lie on the Varangian" (Baltic)
"Sea." Some of the early German notices may be as
old as this of Nestor's.

The reduction of Lithuanian and Pagan Prussia was
undertaken by the Knights of the Teutonic Order in the
twelfth century; when German influences set in from
the west. At the same time the sword of the Poles was
cutting its way northwards ; so that the line of encroach-
ment was double. Another fact made it as much Slavo-
nic as German, which was this : — As the Germans moved
eastwards from the Elbe, they effected alliances with the
Slavonians of Mecklenburg and Pomerania — alliances of
more or less importance and durability. At any rate,
the line of displacement that pressed upon the Old Prus-
sians was Slavono-German, or Germano-Slavonic. The
nomenclature of our authors now suffers a change. The
term East is (as it were) thrown forwards, and becomes
applied to the Esthonians of the Gulf of Finland. The
name Goth- becomes obsolete ; that of Vit- appears
chiefly in compounds. Prussia is the generic name ; to
which a whole host of specific ones is subordinated.

The Prussians, whose paganism inflamed the zeal of the

THE OLD PRUSSIAN'S. 233

Teutonic Knights, were, if we take them in detail, (1)
The* Galind-itce, or the TaXiv^m (Galindce) of Ptolemy;

(2) The Sudo-vitce, conterminous with the Galinditce,
both being in the neighbourhood of the Spirding-See ;

(3) The Pomesani, on the right bank of the Lower Vis-
tula ; (4) Pogesani, on the Frische Haf ; (5) War-
mienses, Jarmenses, Hermini, and the people of the
Orma-land of the Old Norse Sagas, between the Po-
gesani and the — (6) Naltangi ; (7) the Barthi (a name
already noticed), and (8) the Nadrovitce, for whom a
case can be made out in favour of their being the Nahar-
val, of Tacitus ; (9) The /Stojw-bitaei and (10) the Scalo-
vitee. It is this preponderance of forms in -vit-, that
accounts for the name T^-lancL Yet Fit-land, if trust
can be put in the analogies that direct the philologist, is
neither more nor less than Goth-land. The Slavonic
Hospodar and Gospodar become, in Lithuanic, Vis-
pat-s ; i. e., Lord or Master.

The only populations who held to their paganism more
tenaciously than the Old Prussians were the Old Lithu-
anians, and the only Christian conquerors who rivalled
the atrocity of the Teutonic Knights were the Albigensian
Crusaders. There is probably some over-statement in the
numbers both of the opposing forces, and of the killed
and captive. Such numbers as 300,000 slaughtered or
sold are, it is to be hoped, exaggerated. So is such an
assertion as that every one of the eleven divisions of
the Prussian name could bring into the field 2,000
horsemen, and many thousand foot. Nevertheless, there
was an obstinate resistance and a cruel conquest. In the
district of the Nadrovitse lay the chief seat of the Prus-

234) THE LITHUANIANS.

sian superstitions. There was a holy place called Romov,
and a holy man named Crhve. This (as we may sup-
pose) suggested a comparison with the Pope of Home,
and struck the imagination of the early German chroni-
clers much as the stories about Prester John did the
medieval writers on the east. This "Criwe," writes
Dusburg, "was respected as a Pope ; because, even as our
Lord, the Pope, rules the Universal Church of the faith-
ful, in like manner did the nations of Lithuania, and
Livonia, as well as those of Prussia, obey his nod." If
we turn to Tacitus and see what he says about the Nahar-
vai, we shall find that theirs was the pre-eminent
religious locality of the group to which they belonged ;
a group comprising the Aiii, the Helveconae (the
'AtXovcuwveg of Ptolemy), the Manimi, and the Elysii.
In the Naharval country was a "grove hallowed by an
ancient religion. In the Naharval country did a priest
in the garb of a woman preside/' In the Naharval
country were two deities, who, " after the Roman inter-
pretation, were Castor and Pollux. This was the import
of the divinity. No images; no trace of any foreign super-
stition. They worship them as brothers, as youths."
This is too elliptic to be very explanatory. At the same
time it takes light from one or more curious notices of
the later writers. Thus, Adam of Bremen says that the
priests in Courland were dressed like monks — i. e., after
the fashion nearest that of females. Then the Slavonic
mythology has two associated gods, Lei and Polel. The
possible explanation of the word Alcis is more remark-
able still ; unfortunately, however, it does not rest on an
unexceptionable authority. Erasmus Stella writes that

THE LITHUANIANS. 235

the ancient Prussians worshipped amongst beasts the Elk
(Aids).

The precision with which we can separate the Ancient
Prussians from the other Lithuanians is increased by
more statements than one. The divisions of their area,
writes Dusburg, were twelve. Of these he gives the
names ; out of which ten agree with those already enu-
merated; viz., Pomesania, Pogesania, Warmia, Nattangia,
Sambia, Nadrovia, Scalovia, Sudovia, Galindia, Bartha.
Again — when the earlier speculators as to the origin of
the Prussian nation exert their ingenuity, and go (after
the fashion of all such early speculators) upon the doc-
trine that each division represents the family of some
hero or eponymos, we find the story to run in this man-
ner : There were two brothers — Brut and Wud-armxt ;
Brut the king, and* Wudawut the priest. Wudawut
had twelve (eleven?) sons; viz., Litpho, Saimo, Sudo,
Naidro, Scalawo, Bartho, Galindo, Warmo, Hoggo,
Pomeso, and Chelmo. Here Sudo, Naidro, Scalawo,
&c, are the epo-nymi to the Sudovitre, Madro vitas, Scalo-
vitoe, &c.

One more remark, which is this; that traces of the
name trigones (Gytkones, Gothones, &c), which we have
found applied to the JEstyi or Prussians of the Amber
coast, are to be found as late as the end of the 17th
century.

Prsetorius, a Pole, writing A.D. 1688, in his "Orbis
Gothicus," devotes two sections to the following ques-
tions:—

1. Are there any remains of the Gothic name in Eu-
ropean Sarmatia?

236 THE TERM GUDDON.

2. Whence is the contempt of the name Gudd, at the
present time, in Prussia?

From these we learn that the Samogitians, Russians,
Lithuanians, Prussians, Zalavonians, Nadravians, Natan-
gians, Sudovians, Mazovians, and the inhabitants of
Ducal Prussia, were called Guddons by the people about
Koningsberg, and that this name was a name of con-
tempt, accounted for by the extent to which the popula-
tions to which it applied had retained their paganism
against the efforts of the propagators of the Prussian
Christianity. " Guddarum infidehum nomen existit,
adeo ut Gothus sive Guddus idem iis qui paganus et eth-
nicus, hostisque Christianitatis audierit."*

That it was also Slavonic is shewn by a line from an
old Tshekh (Bohemian) poem.

Gotskyja krasnyja diewy na brezje sineniu rnorju.
Gott-ish fair maidens on bank of (the) blue sea.

From the Ancient Prussians let us turn to a much
more obscure population, though famous in its day; i. e.,
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. I have met
with few names in history so seldom as that of the Jacz-
wings. Pronounce this Yatsh-v'mg, and note the various
forms under which it occurs. The letters cz represent
the Sarmatian combination tsh, difficult to represent in
Latin, and not easy in either German or Greek. The J
is the English y, The -ing is, perhaps, German — at any
rate, it is not radical, as will be seen. In the Polish
Chronicles the forms end thus: J&zvr-ingi, Jaczw^ingi,
JcLCu-ingi. The native Slavonic form (in the Russian

* Lib. i., cap. i.

THE YATSHVINGS. 237

Chronicles and the Igor-lied) is Jat-wyazi, or J&t-ivyezi; in
thePapal documents, Jentuisiones,Jeiituosi, JazintLones.
In two instances, however, we have forms as like to Getse,
Gothin-i, and Gothon-es, as Get-wezitw and Get-uinzitce.
The Yatsh-xings lay to the south of the East Prussians,
and to the east of the Poles, in the present province of
Sierdec, and in the Podlachia of the older maps. They
are said also to have extended as far as the marshes about
Pinsk — at the headwaters of the Pripecz. At the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century they were formidable to
both Russia and Poland. It was Poland, however, that
more especially coerced them. This population, "vast
and warlike, greedy of honour, allied in language, rites,
religion, and customs to the Lithuanians, the Samogi-
tians, and the Prussians, dedicated too, like them, to the
worship of idols, a population of which Drohyczyn was
the metropolis, was so broken in a great battle against
the Poles under then Duke, Boleslav, in the year of our
Lord 1282, as to become well-nigh extinct, a few only
remaining, some of which were attached to Poland, some
to Lithuania. They never retreated, and never refused
a battle, however unequal." This is the language of the
chroniclers in speaking of the now unknown Yatsh-v'mgs.
The Poles were their chief conquerors — the Poles, in their
movements from west to east, a movement which will be
noticed in the sequel. At present, I remark that the
Yatslt-wing occupation of Podlachia, Sierdec, &c, throws
the easternmost frontier of the Poles much further west-
wards than is generally imagined. It also brings the
Lithuanian area farther southwards.

The radical parts of the forms Jat-wy&zi (pronounced

238 THE YATSHVINGS.

Fat-), and Getuin-zitse, have been quoted -with a purpose ;
i. e., because the}7 suggest the names Gothones and
Get-se. The former we have seen applied to the Prus-
sians, both ancient and modern. "Who applied it? The
Prussians themselves? I think not. There is no proof
of its being native. The real applicants were the Slavo-
nians of their neighbourhood.

"Who used the term Yatsh-v'uig, with its modifications?
The Yo.tsh-xin.gs themselves? There is no proof of this.
The only populations who can be shewn to have used it
were the Slavonians of their frontier.

Is the identification of it with the word Getce a mere
fancy of mine? Far from it. So early an authority as
Kadlubek writes, "Sunt autem Pollexiani; Getarum seu
Prussorum genus, gens atrocissima," &c.

How far did the Yatsh-ving area originally extend?
This is unknown. Were they the most southern of the
Lithuanians? I think not. What was the early ethno-
logy of Volhynia? The history of Volhynia begins late.
It cannot be shewn, then, that the language was originally
Lithuanic. But it can be shewn that the earliest lan-
guage known to have been spoken in Volhynia was an
intrusive and recent one — viz., the Cumanian Turk.

Now, south of Volhynia, this root Got-, Get, Gut, Yatsh,
&c, reappears; the author in whom we find it being Ta-
citus. The Gothini of Tacitus along with the Osi and
some others, lie at the back of the Marcomanni and
Quadi. This means north of Moravia and Hungary.
Their language separates them from the Germans. That
of the Osi is the Pannonian ; that of the Gothini, the Gal-
lic— "Gothinos Gallica, Osos Pannonica lingua arguit

THE GOTHINI. 239

non esse Germanos." (Germania, 43.) He continues,
" They pay tribute (partly to the Quadi, partly to the
Sarmatians), as men of a different stock (alienigence).
The Gothini work in iron mines. The smaller part oc-
cupy the level ; the greater, the hilly and wooded
districts.

This fixes the Gothini in some part of the Carpathians
— the Gallician portion. For I argue here, as I did in
the case of the Prussian (Pryttisc or Prytskaya) lan-
guage when it was called British (Bryttisc or Britskaya).
Having no reason for believing that the name Halitsch
(the Slavonic form of Gallicia) is one whit less ancient
than the names Gallia, Britannia, Italia, Hellas, &c,
I translate Gallica by Gallician; considering that the
same similarity, with the same likelihood of creating
error, between words as like as the form out of which
Gallicia grew, and that out of which the Romans formed
Galli and the Greeks TaXaTai, existed in the time of
Tacitus as now.

Who used the name Gothini? The Gothini them-
selves? There is no proof of this. The population through
which it reached the Roman was most probably Sarma-
tian, the population that lay between the Gothinian
and the Roman frontier — the population that imposed
the tribute and made the Gothini work for them in the
mines of Gallicia.

The Prussian, the Yatsh-ving, and the Gothinian di-
visions of the Lithuanic branch have no longer a separate
existence, characterized by the criterion of language or
nationality. They cannot, indeed, be considered as
extinct ; inasmuch as much of their blood must be

240 THE LITHUANIANS AND LETTS.

mixed up with that of certain Prussians, Poles, and
Gallicians.

The tribes we next come to are Lithuanic in language as
well as in blood. They fall into two divisions — the
Lithuanian and the Lett.

1. The distribution of the Lithuanians is as follows :
InKovno 568,794

Vilna 138,320

Comland 7,434

Grodno 2,338

716,886

2. The Lett population, on the other hand, runs thus :
InCourland 401,939

Livonia 318,872

Vitepsk 142,497

Kovno 6,34]

St. Petersburg 2,000

Pskov 458

872,107

Total of Lithuanians 716,886

Letts 872,107

1,5S8,993

To these add some members of the same stock in East
Prussia; who are, however, to be looked upon as Letts

THE LETTS. 241

or Lithuanians lying beyond, to the western boundary of
Russia, rather than as descendants of the true old
Prussians.

It should also be added that there is a great deal of
Lithuanic and Let blood beyond the area of the Lithua-
nian and Let languages. Grodno, for instance, is essen-
tially a Lithuanic district — as are parts of Minsk. I
cannot find that any form of the name Goth-, &c, has ever
been applied to any of these more eastern Lithuanians.
It is only with those who can reasonably be considered
as having been in contact with some part of the Slavonic
area that we notice it.

The distinction between the Lets and Lithuanians lies
in the character of their political history, rather than in
any material difference in their ethnology. The physical
appearance and the original Pagan creed are much the
same with each. The difference of language is notable
— but still of no very great importance. The political
development gives the characteristics.

The Lets — i. e., the Courlanders and Livonians — lay in
the same line as the Old Prussians, and it was the stream
of invasion from Germany that was forced upon them.
It was an Order, too, by which they were converted to
Christianity — the Order of the Knights of the Sword.
This nomenclature assists our memory — since it points
to the Crusades shewing the extent to which, whilst
the rest of Europe was Christian, Prussia and Let-land
were Pagan.

It was a German Order that reduced Let-land ; and
hence the difference between Courland and Livonia on the
one side, and East and West Prussia on the other, is only

M

242 THE LETTS.

a matter of degree. Both are German, so far as they
are other than Lithuanic — Prussia to the extent of nine
points in ten, Let-land to (say) three in nine, or some
such smaller proportion. The towns of Zealand (Cour-
land and South Livonia or Lief-\smd) are German ; e, g.,
Revel, Riga, and Mittau. The Lords of the soil are
German. The serfs, and this is a land of serfage, are
Let.

There is a second point that distinguishes Let-land
The creed is Protestant.

There is a third. Livonia was, at one time, a part
of the Swedish dominions ; so that certain Swede
elements help to differentiate the two branches under
comparison.

The Let history is German rather than Polish ; the
Lithuanian, Polish rather than German. In 1386
the great Lithuanian Prince Yagellon married Hedvig,
Queen of Poland, and united the crowns ; from which
time downwards the political histories of the two coun-
tries have been united. Of the two elements, the latter
predominated — so that what is neither Lithuanic nor
Russian in Lithuania is Polish.

The pre-historic period of the Lithuanians""" (and this
means nearly the whole of the time anterior to Yagellon)
was probably that of so many other rude populations ;
i. e., a period of numerous tribes, internal feuds, and
small chieftains.

* AYhen speaking of the particular Lithuan-zaws of Vilna,
Kovno, and Grodno (»". e., Lithuania Proper), I use this form; ie.,
the form in -ian. When speaking of the branch of the Sarmatian
Stock to which they belong, I use the form in -ic — Lithuan-z'c.

THE GOTHIC HYPOTHESIS. 243

Of these, some one with a greater power of political
organization than his predecessors and cotemporaries.
rises above the rest, and consolidates a nationality.

The extent to which the Lets and Lithuanians are, at
the present moment, fragments of a larger poi)ulation, is
seen from the history of the Prussians and the Yatsh-
vings ; for the Prussians and the Yatsh-vings were popu-
lations of comparative importance. I hold, however, as
the result of a considerable amount of neither impatient
nor one-sided investigation, that all the acts of all the
Old Prussians, and all the acts of all the Yatsh-vinss,
put together, are as nothing to the pre-historic actions of
certain earlier members of this important and interesting
stock. I claim for certain branches of it all that comes under
what I call the Gothic hypothesis in the first instance, and,
in the second, all that is deducible from the Poclolian. I
give these names simply because they are convenient.
In a work like the present, where I am only ambitious of
putting in an intelligible form the extent to which I
differ from the generality of ethnologists and historians,
I find this a compact way of expressing myself.

The Gothic Hypothesis. — If the reader will now
bear in mind the remarks of the 14th chapter, upon
the absence of any evidence to the existence of any Ger-
man tribe having called itself Goth so long as it remained
within the limits of Germany, and the further statement
that that (or any similar) name only attaches itself to
any German population when that population becomes
occupant of the country of the Getce, he will, to a great
extent, anticipate my doctrine. He will not only see
that the so-called Mceso-goths, Ostro-goths, and Visi-

M 2

244 THE GOTHIC HYPOTHESIS.

goths were Goths only in the way that Alfred was a
Briton, or Santa Anna a Mexican, but he will also see,
that, saving and excepting such actions as are done by
those particular Germans who can be traced to a Gothic
(or Getic) occupancy, the whole history of the Gothic
name must be transferred to some other family of man-
kind. What was that family ? I answer, the Lithuanic,
or (if we prefer the expression) the Prussian. It might,
indeed, be called the Gothic, or Getic, the Gothonian, or
Gothinian.

This does not mean that Goth- (or Get-) was the name
by which the Lithuanians designated themselves. It
was rather the name by which they were designated by
their neighbours, when those neighbours ivere Slavonic.
The reader has been prepared for this by the remarks
that I have made in the several cases of the Prussians,
the Yatsh-vings, and the Gothini, which were to that effect.
The Lets, on the other hand, and the Lithuanians who
had no Slavonians on their frontier, are never so denomi-
nated

If all this be true, the interpretation of the different
forms of the root G-t must be that of the root W-l, in
Wales. This (as we all know) means a native of certain
counties west of Hereford and Shrewsbury ; the counties
of Carmarthen, Radnor, Merioneth, &c. But, it is
not, for that reason, a native name. It is no Welsh word
at all. It is German ; and in more countries than one,
where a German and a non-German population come in
contact, the German uses it to denote his opposite. It
applies to Italy ; which, in the eyes of the Tyrolese, is
Wales. He calls it Welsh-land. It applies to the Wdlr

THE GOTHIC HYPOTHESIS. 245

loon of the Forest of Ardennes who is a Welsh-ma,n
also. All these are Welsh. ; not because they are really
so, but because the Germans so call them. Hence, the
true inference from the remarkable distribution of this
name, and its appearance at distant points, is the presence
of a German population in the neighbourhood of its
occurrence.

The words before us can supply a further illustration.
They are all forms of the root W-l, in Anglo-Saxon
Wealh ( = stranger, aboriginal Briton, &c). But they
differ in form. The same takes place with the root G-t ;
which is Goth-, Get-, Yatsh, and much more beside.
What are limits to these changes ? To this I answer,
that it is not I who bring under the same category the
Goth, the Gete, the Gothonian, the Gothinian, the Jute
of Jutland, the Yatsh-vmg, the Vite* of Vit-l&nd, and
even (occasionally) the Jut of India. Current opinion
identifies the maj ority of them. The most out-lying have
some respectable name that guarantees their Gothicism.
There is authority for all this, good or bad, as the case
may be ; authority which I allude to for the sake of nar-
rowing the limits of my new position ; this position
being —

That wherever we have, at one and the same time, a
probable form of the root G-t, and along with it a certain
amount of evidence to the existence of a Slavonian po-
pulation in the neighbourhood, and (along with that) signs
of Lithuanic occupancy, which, taken by themselves, would
be doubtful or insufficient, the conjunction of the three

* Compare Fi'Zhelmus with Gulie\mus = WiU-isim..

246 THE GOTHIC HYPOTHESIS.

criteria determines the Lithuanic character of the area
or population to which they apply.

The results of this line of criticism give us the details
of the Gothic hypothesis; the cumulative character on
which it rests being specially pointed out. Taken by
itself the presumed form of the root G-t may be unsa-
tisfactory. So may the evidence of the Slavonic area in
the neighbourhood. So may the signs of Lithuanic oc-
cupancy. But, taken conjointly, the evidence of the
three criteria becomes sufficient.

Before this doctrine takes its application, I will ex-
plain what is meant by —

The Podolian Hypothesis. The sketch of the cri-
ticism which demurs to the doctrine of the Asiatic origin
of the languages of Europe allied to the Sanskrit, is re-
ferred to. It has its place in the 14th chapter, along
with that on the word Goth. It prepares us for the ne-
cessity of pointing out some portion of Europe where
such a language as that of the ancient literature of India,
along with its cognate forms in Persia, is supposed to
have originally developed itself. This must fulfil certain
conditions. It must lie in contact with the Slavono- Li-
thuanic area, but it must he beyond it It must lie on
the south and east thereof, rather than on the west and
north. But it must not he so far south as to impinge
upon the area that the reconstruction of the original
situs of the tongues allied to the Circassian and the other
languages of Caucacus requires; nor yet so far east as
to interfere with the western frontier of the Ugrian area.
It must he in a district in which a great amount of sub-
sequent displacement has taken place. Lastly, it must

THE PODOLIAN HYPOTHESIS. 247

lie where no other language can claim a priority of oc-
cupancy. The Government of Poclolia best satisfies these
conditions — the conditions (mark the phrase) of a provi-
sional and hypothetical localization. It does not profess
to be historical. It merely satisfies certain conditions.
Given, that the probability of the Sanskrit and its allied
forms of speech having originated in Europe and having
been propagated to Asia, is greater than that of the Sla-
vonic, Lithuanic, German, Latin, and Greek languages
having originated in Asia and extended to Europe —
given, also, the fact that the relations of the Sanskrit to the
Sarmatian tongues are greater than to the German,
Greek, and Latin — what is the likeliest spot for the San-
skrit to have originally occupied? Podolia seems a
strange answer : but any other name would (I imagine)
be equally so. It may be thought unnecessarily precise.
Perhaps, it is. It is laid, however, before the reader
on the principle that " truth comes easier out of error
than confusion/' I have no objection to any one substi-
tuting for it Volhynia, or Minsk, or Kiev. Such a
refinement would be a mere matter of detail. Let him
only commit himself to some possible situs, and consider
it simply in relation to the facts of the case before him.
This, however, is not what is done. For reasons too
lengthy to exhibit, it has come to be a generally received
rule amongst investigators, that as long as we bring our
migration from east to west we may let a very Little evi-
dence go a very long way ; whereas, as soon as we reverse
the process, and suppose a fine from west to east, the con-
verse becomes requisite, and a great deal of evidence is
to go but a little way. The effect of this has been to

248 THE PODOLIAN HYPOTHESIS.

create innumerable Asiatic hypotheses, and few or no
European ones. Russia may have been peopled from
Persia, or Lithuania from Hindostan, or Greece from
Asia, or any place west of a given meridian from any
place east of it — but the converse, never. No one asks
for proofs in the former case ; or if he do, he is satisfied
with a very scanty modicum : whereas, in the latter, the
best authenticated statements undergo stringent scrutiny.
Inferences fare worse. They are hardly allowed at all.
It is all "theory and hypothesis" if we resort to them in
cases from west to east; but it is no "theory" and no "hy-
pothesis" when we follow the sun and move westwards.

The result of putting the two lines of migration on a
level is the European origin of the Sanskrit language,
and, as a means of its introduction into Asia, a pre-histo-
ric Slavono-Lithuanic conquest of India — a Russian
conquest if we like to call it so, a Russian conquest any
number of centuries B.C. The words Podolian hypo-
thesis express this briefly, and (so) conveniently. At any
rate, they are measures of the extent to which the author
who uses them eschews indefinitude, and puts his views,
whether right or wrong, in an intelligible and tangible
form.

Turning from the east to the north, we now take cog-
nizance of certain phenomena connected with the root
G-t on the Baltic. In more than one of the North-
German and Polish localities we have noticed it already.
The Guddon of Prussia, and the Yatskvings to the south of
the Guddon,h&ve been noticed — both, more or less, on the
water-system of the Vistula. That these were not Ger-
mans, and that they ivere Lithuanic, has been stated, per-

GOTHS, ETC., OF SCANDINAVIA. 249

haps, more than sufficiently. But there are other Goths
besides. There are those who gave their name to the
island Goth-land; those who gave their name to the two
Swedish Provinces of East and West Goth-land; those
who gave their name to Jut-land ; and those who gave the
name to Vith-e$-la,nd (or the land of the Vitce), to the
Danish islands. The Geats belonged to some of these
divisions. I claim all this as Lithuanic; and, if I
do so without going far into the proof, I find my
excuse in the nature of the reasoning employed. It is
eminently simple. Deduce the legitimate consequences
from the Non-German character of the Goths and all the
rest follows as a matter of common sense. Not that
there is any want of special facts. On the contrary, there
they are very numerous — numerous enough to decide
the question in the absence of any preconceived hypo-
thesis. But a certain preconceived hypothesis has never
yet been absent — that being the German origin of every-
thing that had a name beginning with G and ending in
T, with a vowel between them.

More than one passage in the older Norse literature
notifies the difference between the Swedes and the Goths.

More than one deity is common to the Scandinavian
and Lithuanic mythologies; e. g., Perkunos and Fiorgyn,
Prowa and Freya.

More than one (or one hundred) words are at one and
the same time Scandinavian, Lithuanic, and Non-Ger-
man. Some of these are of no small interest; inasmuch
as they occur in our own language ; having come in from
a land sufficiently Lithuanic to be called Jut-land —
vjoman being one of these words ; ale, another.

m 3

250 GOTHS, ETC., OF SCANDINAVIA.

Of course, all this, and the like of it, can be explained
differently, and made compatible with the German hypo-
thesis. It can ; but the German hypothesis is unfounded,
inasmuch as its basic assumption has been cut away from
under it.

Pari passu with the Lithuanic movements from
Prussia there went on certain Slavonic ones from Meck-
lenberg, Pomerania, and Holstein. This is no mere as-
sumption for the sake of accounting for the forms in g-t.
In Holstein the evidence of a Slavonic occupancy is his-
toric. It is all but historic in the island Laaland. It is
an inference from more than one local name (Wend-
syssel and Sleeve) in North Jutland.

What was not Lithuanic is as remarkable as what was.
Norway was not so — or, if it were, but slightly. In Nor-
way, where the archaeologist finds no traces of what he
calls his Bronze Period, the ethnologist finds no Goths
— none of those tribes who, as early as the time of Ta-
citus, are said to use clubs rather than iron — varus ferri
frequens fustium usus.

Such is the probable pre-historic history of a popu-
lation now sunken and reduced, a population to which I
refer the earliest navigators of the North as well as the
earliest conquerors of the East.

THE SERVIANS. 251

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SARMATIAN STOCK CONTINUED THE SERVIANS, BULGARIANS,

AND POLES.

The Servians. — The early ethnology of Servia seems
to have been simple. There were changes in certain de-
tails of the frontier; changes by which the Slavonic
area may have encroached on the Albanian, changes by
which the Albanian may have encroached on the Sla-
vonic. There were also details in respect to the Greeks
of Macedonia. None, however, are of great importance.

Neither were the influences of the Roman period. Of
all the districts of the Danube, the reduction of Ser-
via (or Upper Moesia) seems to have been the least
complete.

When the seat of government was changed, and By-
zantium became Constantinople, the influence of Rome
increased — but then the Rome was only a nominal
one. It was Greek and Christian, rather than Italian
and Pagan; the Christianity being that of the Greek
Church. This was extended to Bulgaria and Servia, and
along with it the old Slavonic alphabet, founded upon

252 THE SERVIANS.

the Greek and called Cyrillic, from St. Cyril, the Apostle
of the Slavonians.

As Greek and Christian, Servia continued to be more
or less Byzantine until the fourteenth century ; when it
took its place as a separate substantive kingdom imder
Stephan Dushan, who died A.D. 1355. This is the
brilliant period of Servian history ; the dependence upon
Constantinople having been shaken off, and the career of
Turk conquest having, as yet, to develop itself. By A.D.
1398, it had reached Servia ; and from the defeat of the
Servians on the field of Kossove to the present time, the
political history of Servia has gone along with that of
Turkey ; though less since it was declared a separate
though tributary principality, than before.

The Servian of Servia, the typical or Ultra-Servian,
must be a very pure and unmixed division of the Slavo-
nic branch of the Sarmatian stock. The Servian nation-
ality, too, is of a very definite kind. That of the Mon-
tenegriners approaches it the closest.

The name is, more or less, general as well as special ;
as we have already seen. Within the Principality itself,
the dialects are three — one, more or less, central ; a second
spoken in Northern Servia and Southern Hungary ; the
third in Western and Southern Servia. This latter ex-
tends, with but slight variations, over Bosnia, Herzego-
vinia, and Montenegro. On the Hungarian frontier a
Servian is called Rat sit (Racz); and that by the Slovaks
as well as the Majiars. This is important, because it
shews that the word is Slavonic, and suggests a meaning
to more forms than one like it — Rhcct-ia, Rug-ii, Rug-en,
and Ru r/-en-walde.

THE BULGARIANS. 253

In Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, Servian as Is the
language in its essentials, it changes its current denomi-
nation and is called Slovenian. Here the creed is Ro-
manist, and a common scientific name for the language
is Illyrian.

Say that in Styria and on the frontier of Bulgaria we
find the two extremes of the Servian form of Slavonism
— the one Servian in the strict sense of the word, the
other Slovenian — the one Greek in creed, the other Ro-
man— the one Austrian, the other either national or
Turk — and we get, in Croatia, the transitional or inter-
mediate forms.

This shews that two lines of ethnological influence
from different directions meet in the Servian area — one
Greek and Turk from the East, the other Roman and
German from the West.

The Servians — whether we use the word in its e-ene-
ral or its more special sense — are distinguished in many
points from —

The Bulgarians. — The early history of these is ob-
scure. Some portion of the Bulgarian migration was
Turk ; some, perhaps, Ugrian. That the Bulg-axiasis
came from the Volga is suggested by the name : but that
they are necessarily, and for that reason, of the same stock
with the Bulgarians of Kazan is by no means the true
inference. The Roman elements that were engrafted on
the original population of Mcesia were further modified
by the German occupancy of the Thervings and GrutuDgs
from the parts north of the Danube, who were driven south-
wards by the Huns in the reign of Valens. After the
breaking-up of the power of Attila, arose the first Bulgarian

2.51 THE BULGARIANS.

kingdom, which lasted somewhat under -±00 years ; be-
ginning about 640, and ending 1017. At the beginning
of this period it was, probably, more Turk than Slave,
at the end more Slave than Turk. At the beginning of
it the Bulgarians were Pagan, at the end, Christian ; the
general history of their conversion, (the effect of their
proximity to Constantinoj)le,) being much the same as
that of the Servians.

The second Bulgarian kingdom was Wallachian as
well as Bulgarian ; not that the Wallachians and Mol-
davians reduced the Bulgarians, or that the Bulgarians
conquered the Danubian Principalities ; but that there
was a vast amount of immigration from the northern
bank of the Danube to the southern. This extended itself
even to Macedonia and Thessaly, and partially to Bosnia
and Albania. Hence, we have even, at the present
moment, over and above the Rumanyos of the Danubian
Principalities, the Rumanyos, Wallachians, or Vlakhs of
Bulgaria, of Macedonia, and of Thessaly.

After this, the bonds that connected Bulgaria with
Constantinople became looser and looser until the Os-
manli conquest incorporated Bulgaria with Runielia —
Maesia with Thrace — the parts north with the parts
south of the Balkan. Since then Bulgaria has been
Osmanli in its political history, Slavonic in respect to
its ethnology. Not, however, without more than one
notable characteristic, as is to be expected from the mixed
character of the blood.

Thus — the language, although closely allied to the
Servian and Russian, is the only Slavonic form of speech
wherein we find the same phenomenon that the Scandi-

THE POLES. 255

navian tongues of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland,
and the Feroe Islands give us amongst the German
class ; viz., the so-called post-positive article, — i. e., the
article at the end of the word as an affix. Thus, if bord
(in Danish) mean table, the compound bord-et means
the table. Sol = Sun ; Sol-en = the Sun, &c. Now, this
is Bulgarian also — Bulgarian, but not Russian ; Bulga-
rian but not Servian ; Bulgarian, but not Slovak, Polish,
Tshekh, or aught else. On the other hand, it is Walla-
chian ; and it is, more or less, Albanian also.

The Poles. — The chief fact in the ethnology of the
Poles is its extreme character ; inasmuch as either they
or the Bohemians are the types of the Western as opposed
to the Eastern Slavonians. Like that of the Servians
their blood is comparatively pure and unmixed ; at least,
in the western parts of the area. Like the Carinthians,
Carniolans, Styrians, and Slovaks, their line of ethnolo-
gical and historical influences has run from west to east,
being — politically and ecclesiastically — German and Bo-
man, rather than Turk or Greek.

Silesia, Lusatia, and Brandenburg seem to give us the
oldest Polish occupancies. The reasons for going thus
far westwards are common "to the ethnology of both
Poland and Lithuania. They have been already noticed.
It can now be added, that I find no facts in the special
ethnology of the early Poles, that complicate the view
taken in respect to the southward and westward exten-
sion of the early Prussians and Yatshvings. On the
contrary, the special facts, such as they are, are confir-
matory rather than aught else of the western origin,
and the eastern direction, of a Polish line of encroachment,

256 THE POLES.

migration, occupancy, displacement, invasion, or con-
quest. Under the early kings of the blood of Piast (an
individual, by the way, wholly unhistoric), the locality
for their exploits and occupancies is no part of the coun-
try about the present capital, Warsaw, but the district
round Posen and Gnesen ; this being the area to which
the earliest legends attach themselves ; the parts east
of the Vistula coming-in later.

Where this is not the case, where the Duchy of Posen
or Prussian Poland does not give us the earliest signs of
Polish occupancy, the parts about Cracow do. At any
rate, the legends lie in the west and south rather than in
the east ; on the Saxon or the Bohemian frontier rather
than the Lithuania The evidence of language points in
the same direction. Dialectual varieties increase as we
go westwards, decrease as we go eastwards.

But it is not from the parts about Posen alone that we
deduce the whole of the pre-historic Polish movements.
Both history and induction tell us that Brandenburg,
Silesia, Lusatia, Saxony, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and
even Luneburg were (if not absolutely Polish) Slavonic
of the Polish type. In all these countries, the stream of
German encroachment has" enlarged itself, and effected
displacements, obliterations, and amalgamations, at the
expense of the original Slavonism. Nevertheless, in
Upper and Lower Lusatia, and in the Circle of Cotbus
in Brandenburg, the Slavonic of the Sorabians or Sorbs,
still exists. So does the Kasub in Pomerania. So, imtil
lately, did the Linonian in Luneburg.

Hence the ethnology of the Poles is that of a popula-
tion encroached upon in one direction, encroaching in

THE POLES. 257

another. The Germans displaced or intermixed with
them; they — the Poles — displaced or intermixed with
the Lithuanians.

Where is the blood the purest? In the parts about
Posen. In Brandenburg, &c, it is more Polish than the
language, the language being German. In the Duchy of
Warsaw, on the other hand, the blood is, more or less,
Lithuania, the language being Polish.

In the pre-eminently Polish parts of Poland the blood
must (as in the Ultra-Servian parts of Servia) be as
pure as any in Europe ; the original population being in
situ and with a minimum of disturbance. Too far
east for the German, too far west for the Russian and
Turk occupancies, too far south for the Scandinavian,
and too far north for the Roman, it lies beyond the pale
of any known conquest ; and this is what we can say of
few localities besides. The Mongol inroads can have
done but little. Liegnitz in Silesia was their extreme
point ; and although Liegnitz in Silesia be a point that
lies far west for a wave of conquest from the Wall of
China to have impinged upon, it is, nevertheless, south
of the Duchy of Posen. So that the Duchy of Posen is
that part of Poland; in which I can find nothing but
what is Polish.

Of the Kasub fragment of the original Polish popu-
lation of Pomerania I can give no good account.

The Silesian and Brandenburg Poles are represented,
however, by the present Sorbs, Serbs, Srbs, or Sora-
bians, in the parts about Cotbus and Bautzen. The
upper drainage of the River Spree gives us their geogra-
phical area. There are two dialects of their tongue;
spoken, according to Schaffarik by —

258

THE SORABIANS.

Upper Lusatians 98,000

Lower Lusatians 44.000

142,000

They are the descendants of the Milcieni and Lusici
of the middle-age writers, Lusatia being said to take its
name from the word Luzha — fen, or moor. Bautzen
was the capital of the Milcieni — in the Slavonic, Budusin,
The original Lusatia coincided with the parts between
the Black Elster and the Spree. It was a March or
Border, and has since extended itself over part of the
country of the Milcieni.

Of the two Sorabian dialects, one uses g where the
other uses h — just what the Poles and Bohemians do.
This may be seen from the following table : —
English. U.Ltjsatian. L. Ltisatian. Bohemian. Polish.

Burn

horicz

goresch

boreti

gorec

Bending

horbate

garbaty

brbaty

garbaty

Goose

husa

guss

husa

ges

Dove

hoib

golb

bolub

golab

Caterpillar

husancza

gussenza

housenka

gasienica

Never

nibde

nigdy

nihdy

nigdy

Foot

noba

noga

noba

noga

Fire

wohen

vrogen

ohen

ogien

God

bob

bog

bub

b6g

Bank

brob

brog

breb

brzez

See Schneider's Grammatik der WendAschen (Sora-
bian) Spraclte — Bautzen, 1853.

The fragments of the Sorabians lie on the Spree ; those
of the Polabingians, on the Lower Elbe — i. e., in Lune-
burg. Their name fixes them to the Elbe ; since po = on,
and Laba = Elbe. The termination -ing is German.
As this name may apply to more than one tribe pro-

THE SORABIANS. 259

vided it lie on the particular river that the name sug-
gests, the exact Polabingian (or Polabisk) localities are un-
certain. One was in Lauenburg ; another in Luneburg,
the tribe there settled being the Linones, Lini, or Linoges.

Such are the members of the Polish division of the
Western Slavonians, whose languages either still exist or
have become extinct but lately — the Luneburg Slaves, the
Kasub or Pomeranian Slaves, and the Serb or Lusatian
Slaves being but isolated fragments of a once continuous
population. When this was in its full integrity, when
Brandenburg and Mecklenburg, when Lauenburg and
Holstein, when Saxony and Anhalt — indeed, when all the
parts east and many of the parts west of the Saale were
Slavonic — the populations were as follows : —

Beginning with the northern frontier of Saxony and
the parts about Leipzig, we find between the Elbe and
the Mulde, the Daleminzi with their fourteen towns ;
Dalmatians, as their name becomes in some authors.
Close upon these, and along with them, the Ghutizi, the
Colidici, and the Siusli, may be considered as the repre-
sentatives of the older Semnones.

Safely, then, and truly may we say, that if the Polish
area have extended itself eastwards it has receded on the
west. Hence, as the Pole has been to the Lithuanian,
so has the German been to the Pole.

That Pole is a common rather than a proper name,
has been already stated. It means an occupant of a level
or champaigne country. This makes the term incon-
venient, since a Pole in one sense may be anything but
a Pole in another. In the particular case before us there
is a second name in the field — Lekh. This is the more

260 POLE AND LEKH.

native name of the two ; since the relationship between
the Polish and Bohemian sections of the Western Slaves
is expressed in the eponymic legend that " Tshek and
Lekh were brothers." More important is the fact that,
word for word, Lekh is the same as the Lyg-u of Tacitus
and Ptolemy — some of which, at least, name for name,
and place for place, were Poles. With the Semnones,
then, and with the Lygii, the Slavonians of Saxony, Lu-
satia, Brandenburg, and Poland make their appearance
in the field of history, as the true owners of what the
German conquest converted into Saxony. The Sorabi,
along with the Milcieni and Lusici already mentioned,
are, more or less, in this same category.

Then, lying east of the Elbe and Oder, as occupants of
what is now Brandenburg and Mecklenburg, came the
Hevelli (on the Hevel), the Smeldingi, the Bethenici,
the Brizani and Stoderani, the Dossani, the Morizani,
the Warnabi, the Liubuzzi, Ucri, Luticzi, and several
others — whilst Holstein gives us the Wagrians, Schwe-
rin the Obotrites, and the Isle of Kugen the Rugians.

THE EUMANYOS. 261

CHAPTER XVIII

THE EUMANYOS OF WALLACHIA, MOLDAVIA, BESSARABIA, ETC.

The name Wallachian is by no means native. It is
Slavonic and Romaic (modern Greek) ; the forms being
Olakh. It is also Turk ; for the Turks call Wallachia,
Ak-ijlak, or White — and Moldavia, Kam-iflak, or Black
— Wallachia The Majiar form is Olah.

It is also German ; and, perhaps, this is what it was
originally. If so, it is the same word as Welsh, and Wal-
loon, and the same as Valais in Switzerland ; in which
case it means, in the mouth of a German, any population
different from the one to which he himself belongs — i. e.,
any 'non-German population. Who, however, were the
Germans who gave this name, a name which the Slavo-
nians, Greeks, and Turks have all adopted? Was it
the Germans of Transylvania who entered that country
in the latter half of the 12th century ? The name
occurs in Byzantine history too early for this. Was it
the Grutungs and Thervings who, after their expulsion
by the Huns, settled in the Roman province of Moesia,

262 THE RUMANYOS.

and played so prominent a part in the later Roman his-
tory under the inconvenient names of Ostrogoths and
Visigoths ? Perhaps. At any rate, however, the name
is not native.

The name by which a Wallachian, a Moldavian, or
a Bessarabian designates himself, is a name which we
find, in some form or other, widely spread elsewhere, in a
variety of forms, and with no slight latitude of meaning.

It is the name the Gipsies give themselves ; which is
Rommani.

It is the name of the Modern Greek language ; which
is Romaic.

It is the name of the language of the Grisons ; which is
Rumonsch.

It is the name of the old Romance language of France.

It is the name of that part of European Turkey which
corresponds with ancient Thrace, and of which Constan-
tinople is the capital, — Rumelia.

It is the name of a large portion of Asia Minor —

Roum.

It is a name as honourable as it is widely spread; for
wherever we find it it reminds us of the old sovereignty of
Rome. The Gipsies spread over Europe from one of the
chief Roman localities — little in the way of anything ap-
pertaining to Rome as they otherwise can boast of.
The modern Greeks identify themselves with the Romans
of the Eastern Empire ; so that the tongue of Homer and
Pericles takes its modern denomination from the metropo-
lis of Virgil and Cicero. This same connection with the
Eastern Romans (Roman here meaning Greek) gives us
the names Roum and Rumelia. The Grisons and the

THE MJMANYOS. 263

Romance country were not only Roman provinces, but
the languages were of Roman origin also. And this is
the case with Wallachia and Moldavia, and also with a
notable portion of Bukh ovinia, Transylvania, Hungar}^
and Bulgaria. The populations of these parts, who are
neither Slavonians nor Majiars (nor yet Germans), call
themselves Mumanyo or Roman; the claim to so honour-
able a name being attested by their language, which is a
descendant of the Latin ; as truly as the Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, and French. When Dacia was reduced by
the Romans under Trajan, a Roman nationality along
with the Latin language was introduced. If so, the Ru-
manyos are no instances of a pure stock ; and, although
the blood they boast is good, it is far from unmixed.

Their language, separating them from the Slavonians,
connects them with the most civilized countries of West-
ern Europe; though it is nearly unintelligible beyond
the boundaries of the ancient Dacia. Then it is strangely
disguised in the writing and printing; inasmuch as the
Rumanyo alphabet is Russian. This is as if Latin were
written in Greek characters. The creed is that of the
Greek Church.

Numbers within the limits of the Russian Empire —

In the Government of Podolia 7,429

Ekaterinoslav . 9,858

■ Kherson 75,000

In the District of Bessarabia ... 406,182

498,469
Say, that in round numbers, there are half a million

264; SPECDIENS OF THE RUMANYO LANGUAGE.

Rurnanyos who are absolute subjects to the Czar, and we
do it without taking cognizance of the Rurnanyos of the
Danubian Principalities, of the Rurnanyos under Austria,
of the Rumanyos of Bulgaria and Macedonia — for there
are Rumanyos thus far beyond the proper Rumanyo
area.

In Transylvania the Rumanyos are to the Majiars as
nine to seven ; the population for that province being—

Rumanyos 900,000

Majiars 700,000

Germans 250,000

Slavonians — say Greeks, Armenians, |
Jews, Gipsies — say j

2,056,000

The "Wallachian statistics I am unable to supply.
Probably, the population of the Principalities is not less
than 2,000,000.

The following specimens of the language, from Schott's
Wcdachische Mcarchen, shews the extent to which it re-
sembles the Latin :

1.

RUMANYO. LATIN'.

Bela in larga valle ambla, Puella in larga valle ambulabat,

Erba verde lin calca ; Herbam viridem leniter calcabat,

Canta, qui cantand plangea, Cantabat, etcantando plangebat,

Quod toti munti resuna. Ut omnes montes resonarent :

Ea iu genuncbi se punea, Ilia in genua se ponebat,

Ochi in sus indirepta ; Oculos sursum dirigebat ;

Ecce, asi vorbe facea : Ecce, sic verba faciebat :

Domne, domne,bunedomne. Domine, domine, bone domine.

SPECIMENS OF THE RUMANYO LANGUAGE.

265

RUMANYO.

Nucu, fagu, frassinu
Mult se certa intra sene.
Nuce, dice frassinu,
Quine vine, nuci cullege,
Cullegend si ramuri frange :
Vaide dar de pelle a tua!
Dar tu fage, mi vecine,
Que voi spune in mente tene :
Multe fere saturasi ;
Qui prebene nu amblasi ;
Quum se au geru apropiat
La pament te au si culcat,
Si in focu te au si aruncat, etc.

LATIN.

Nux, fagus, fraxinus,
Multiun certant inter se.
Nux, dicit fraxinus
Quisquis venit, nuces legit,
Colligendo ramos frangit :
Vse itaque pelli tuae!
At tu fage, mi vicine,
Quae exponam mente tene 1
Multas feras saturasti,
At haud bene ambulasti ;
Quum gelu appropinquat
Ad pavimentum te deculcant
Ad focum projiciunt.

The following words do the same :-

ENGLISH.

RUMANYO.

LATIN.

Man (the)

Omil.

Homo.

Heaven.

Ceriu.

Ccelum.

Moon.

Luna.

Luna.

Mountain.

Munte.

Mont.

Lake.

Lacu.

Lacus.

Sea.

Mare.

Mare.

Bank.

Eipa.

Eipa.

Ricer.

Rivu.

Eivus.

Smoke.

Fumu.

Fumus.

Spa?-k.

Scbinte.

Scintilla.

Light.

Lumine.

Lumen.

Shadow.

Umbra.

Umbra.

Wind.

Ventu.

Ventus.

Lightning.

Fulger.

Fulgur.

Water.

Apa.

Aqua.

This list, taken from Schott, might be enlarged to any
amount. I draw attention, however, to only the first

N

266 SPECIMENS OF THE RUMANYO LANGUAGE.

and last words in it. In the word omul we have homo
ille; i. e., a substantive with the postpositive article,
already noticed. In apa, as contrasted with agua, we
have a change of some interest, both on account of the
regularity of its occurrence in Rumanyo, and its re-occur-
rence in one of the Non-laim dialects of Italy. Thus —
The Roman nox is in Rumanyo nopte = night.

lac lapte = milk.

pectus peptu = breast

In like manner,

The Roman quis is in Oscan pis

qui piei.

quid picl.

quod pud.

quos pus, &c.

In like manner, too, and with equal regularity, in a
still more distant class of languages,

The Irish ceathar is the Welsh pedwar =four.
huig pump - Jive.

Does this change — i. e., the one in Rumanyo — indicate
the Oscan character of the Legionaries (soldiers) who oc-
cupied the Roman province of Dacia? This is a point I
raise rather than answer.

The early ethnology of Western Wallachia is that of
Eastern Transylvania ; the only difference being that the
Majiar conquest of Hungary has effected certain recent
modifications in the latter country. It was originally
Slavonic ; Slavonic after the manner of the ancestors of
the Servians in the south ; Slavonic after the manner of
the ancestors of the Ruthenians in the north; Slavonic
of an intermediate and transitional character in the cen-

THE RUMANYOS. 267

fare. In the east there was a certain amount of early
Getic modification ; and in the west a probably Slovak
influence from the area of the Western, as opposed to the
Eastern, Slavonians. But the two important displace-
ments were those effected by the Turks and the Romans ;
the latter in the time of Trajan (A.D. 106), the former
at different times and in a complex manner.

Thus — the old Agathyrsans must have occupied some
portion of the present Rumanyo area.

The Huns and Avars were more or less similar occu-
pants.

Certain Bulgarians — Slavonic, Ugrian, Turk, Roman,
and Goth, in undefined proportions — were the same.

So were the Petshenegs ; one of the forms of which
name (Bessi) is still preserved in the word .Bess-
arabia.

On the other hand, the Grutungs and Thervings, some
of whom must have occupied Rumanyo ground, were
German.

Add to this, that Majiar elements can scarcely be
wanting; inasmuch as the Principalities lie between the
original Majiar area towards the south of the Uralian
range and the present Majiar occupancy on the Danube.

The early history (properly so-called, and as opposed
to the ethnology) of the Rumanyo districts is obscure ;
since they lay too far north of Constantinople to get much
notice. It followed, however, that of the first Bulgarian
kingdom, of which the Rumanyo country was a part ; the
Hun period having immediately preceded. Then, in the
tenth century, came the Majiar invasion; the current ac-
count of this being to the effect, that the Majiars fled be-

n2

268 THE RUMANYOS.

fore the Petshenegs, and that the Petshenegs ruled as far
as the Aluta, until the Uz and Cumanians pressed upon
them. But little of this rests upon satisfactory evidence.
Three nations, however, each representing a different
family of mankind, seem to have taken part in the Ru-
manyo history of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries
— the Turk Petshenegs, the Ugrian Majiars, and the,
more or less, Slavonic Bulgarians.

Towards the end of the thirteenth century (say A.D.
1290) we find something like a Rumanyo nationality;
for Wallachia, at least. The great Mongol inroads of the
Temuginian period had passed over, when a Transylva-
nian, Radul the Black, consolidated a Wallachian Prin-
cipality, extending from the Upper Aluta to the Sereth.
Moldavia took form later. A.D. 1352, however, may be
put down for the establishment of the preponderance of
the Rumanyos over the Petsheneg Turks.

Here, there is something like a period of power and
independence — power more or less organized, and inde-
pendence more or less perfect. Bulgaria no longer en-
croaches from the south, and the Petsheneg power is
broken up. Hungary, however, is more powerful than
ever, and Poland is stretching itself from the Dnieper
towards the Danube. Each of these powers has some
share, great or little, material or moral, in the Rumanyo
history of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fiteenth cen-
turies. In 1526, the great battle of Mohacz (Mohatsh)
subordinated Wallachia and Moldavia to the power of
the Osmanli Turks, then the occupants of Constanti-
nople and the terror of Eastern Europe.

The Rumanyo migration into and beyond Bulgaria,

THE RUMANYOS. 269

during the Byzantine period, has been already mentioned.
This gives us, over and above the Wallachians and Mol-
davians Proper, whose speech is called, in scientific lan-
guage, Daco-Wallachian —

The Rumanyos of Macedonia, whose speech in similar
scientific language is the Macedono-Wallachian. An-
other name for this branch is Kutzo-Wallachian. These
fall into —

a. The northern branch, occupying a portion of the
mountain-range between Macedonia and Albania.

b. The central branch, between Thessaly and Albania ;
mountaineers of the Pindus range.

c. The southern branch, between Boeotia and South-
ern Albania.

The Danubian Principalities took their Christianity
from Bulgaria, and Bulgaria from Greece — the time of
the Rumanyo conversion being the ninth and tenth cen-
turies. Anterior to this, however, there may, or there
may not, have been a slight infusion of Christian doc-
trine in the time of the Grutungs and Thervings.

The most general characteristic of the Rumanyos is
their language. This distinguishes them at once from all
other populations — both near and distant. Next to
this, comes their creed ; characteristic of a Rumanyo as
opposed to a Majiar, but not distinctive of a Rumanyo as
compared with a Bulgarian. Their dress, their domestic
architecture (humble as it is), and their habits, supply
other differentiae. In respect to figure, they are dark and
oval-faced, with prominent features and fairly-constructed
frames — more tall than short. Their resemblance to the
Dacian figures on Trajan's pillar has been enlarged upon

270 THE KUMANYO SUPERSTITIONS.

by several good observers. Their Christianity is still re-
dolent of heathenism. I have before me a list of Wal-
lachian deities, demons, genii, or whatever else they may
be called. At the head of it stand Smou and Smeone,
mother and son. Smou, the son, is compared by Schott
to the German Riibezahl. He can change his shape,
and visit men in any form he likes. He does so some-
times, and makes love to mortal maidens incognito.
His dwelling is underground. Here his mother, Smeone,
keeps house for him ; upon the whole, being the better
disposed being of the two; for Smou, though possibly
more good than bad, is fickle and odd-tempered. It is
his mother who keeps him steady and good-humoured.

Smou is as much good as bad; but Balduru is a
being of unmodified evil. The fens, the bogs, the rocks,
the glens, and the caverns, are his residences; and
when men pass by any of these more suspicious-looking
than usual, they tremble lest Balduru should lay hold
of them.

Vilva is Wallachian, and Slavonic as well ; in name,
wholly; in attributes, but partially. In Servia she is
the dark-eyed maiden of the night, with hair black and
flowing, and eyes black and bright. In Wallachia she
is half-dragon and half-snake — fearful to look on. How-
ever, each is the goddess of the sky ; presiding over the
clouds, and air, and all the skiey influences.

Sina is the Goddess of Hunting; Sina, who is also
called Dina and Diana. She may safely be identified
with the Latin Diana. But it is by no means so safe to
derive her from Italy. The Bohemians, far beyond the
nfiuences of Rome, had also a Diana, of which the clas-

THE RUMANYO SUPERSTITIONS. 271

sical mythologists take too little cognizance. In like
manner the Indian scholar ignores the fact of the Poles,
in the pagan period, having had a Veshna and Zhieva.
Such, however, is the case. I believe that this is one of
the many facts which the Podolian hypothesis requires
to be read backwards; i. e., to take a converse interpreta-
tion to the usual one applied to it.

The Mwma padura, the Mother of the woods, is more
good than bad, more kind than vicious, more old than
young. When children lose themselves in a forest, she
protects them.

The water, like the wood, has its divinity. When the
Wallachian maid fills her vessel, she pours out a spoonful
or two for the goddess. Her name is not given.

The Morii are ghosts in general. So are the Strigoi
(Latin Strigai). When a child is born, the bystanders
throw a stone behind them, saying, " This to the Strigoi."

The Sinit (Sanctus), is the festival to the domestic
genius, special to each hearth — the Lar of the Romans,
with his feast-day under a Christian designation.

The Murony is the Vampire, in which every Romanyo
believes.

Priccolitsh is a Murony under a modification, being,
like the Vampire, a bloodsucker. It is, however, horses,
goats, pigs, and sheep, rather than men, that he drains of
their vital fluid. And this he does only at night, and
after changing himself from his usual form of a human
being into a dog. A female Priccolitsh is a Pricco-
litshone.

Name for name, though different in attributes, this
Priccolitsh is the Sarmatian Pikullos. I say Sarmatian,

272 THE KUMANYO SUPERSTITIONS.

because he is Lithuanic as well as Slavonic; possibly,
the more Lithuanic of the two. He and two others were
the great Prussian divinities — Perkunos and Potrimpos.
The Bishop of Warm eland in 1418, writes, "Expellendae
erant, et expulsse sunt gentes servientes daemonibus, co-
lentes Pacuttum, Potrimpe et aha ignominiosa fantas-
mata." But Pacullus was not expelled; not even when
Prussia had got filled with bishops, not even when the
old vernacular language died out Pacullus, even in the
year 1854, keeps his ground in Protestant Prussia as well
as in Greek "Wallachia, In a specimen of the Platt-
deutsh of Nattangen I find the name Pakulls, just as
we find in English that of Bogy or Old Scratch.

As to Perkunos he re-appears in the Scandinavian
mythology as Fiorgyn; the German explanation being,
that the Lithuanians took him from the Goths — the
Goths, of course, being German.

Statzicot is the Rumanyo Tom Thumb.

THE MONGOLS. 273

CHAPTER XIX.

THE MONGOLS, AND THE TUNGUSIANS — THE AINO, KOEIAK, AND KAMSKA-
DALES — THE INDIANS OP RUSSIAN AMERICA.

THE MONGOLS of the Russian Empire fall into two
divisions, convenient rather than natural ; viz., — the Mon-
gols of the Chinese frontier, and the Mongols of the Don
and Volga. The former are occupants of their original
and natural locality ; the latter are colonists or settlers
separated from their brethren of the interior of Asia,
and brought into contact with Europeans.

The Mongolians of the Chinese frontier are either
the Buriat, or the Olot; the Buriat to the east, the Olot
to the west; the Buriat in contact with the Daourian
Tungusians, the Olot in contact with the Kirghiz Turks.

The Buriat — South of the Great Lake Baikal, and
on the River Selenga, lies the frontier town of Kiatka,
the great bazaar, market, or depot for the trade between
Russia and China. This is in the Buriat country, which
extends along the frontier, eastward and westward. At
the same time, the main body of the population belongs
to China. This outer fringe (so to say) of Mongolism

n 3

274 THE KALMUKS.

does not extend very far into Russia; since the northern
part of what we see in the maps marked as Daouria, is
Tungusian.

The Olot. — In contact not only with the Chinese and
Russian frontiers, but also with that of Independent
Tartary, lie the Olot, on the drainage of the River
Hi and the Lake Tenghiz or Balkash Nor. They fall
into four tribes — the Dzungar, the Durbet, the Torgot,
and the Khosot. From the first we get the names
Dzungaria and Dzungarian for these parts ; from the Dur-
bet and Torgot, the Kalmuks of the Volga. In 1662, a
vast division from these two tribes crossed the Yaik, and
made for the Lower Don and the Lower Volga, where
they settled, and are to be found at this present time.
In 1770, a great portion of the Torgot returned to their
original locality. The remnant, however, (chiefly Durbet,)
is distributed as follows : —

In Astrakhan 87,656

— Don Kosaks 20,591

— Orenburg ?

— Samar ?

— Saratov 692

— Stavropol 10,223

119,162

Kalmuk is the name the Russians give them, a name
which has found its way, though with a less definite
signification, elsewhere. In Russia, however, the Kal-
muk is always a Mongol ; the Tartar, always a Turk.

THE KALMUKS. 275

The difference, however, between these two designations
has, perhaps, been sufficiently enlarged upon already.

The following description of the Kalmuks of the Don
Kosak country is from Dr. Clarke.* We shall find in it
a picture of the so-called Mongol physiognomy in one of
its more extreme forms. " Of all the inhabitants of the
Russian empire, the Calmucks are the most distinguished
by peculiarity of feature and manners. In their per-
sonal appearance, they are athletic, and very forbidding.
Their hair is coarse and black ; their language, harsh and
guttural. They inhabit the countries lying to the north
of Persia, India, and China ; but from their vagrant
habits, they may be found in all the southern parts of
Russia, even to the banks of the Dnieper. The Cossacks
alone esteem them, and intermarry with them. This
union sometimes produces women of very great beauty ;
although nothing is more hideous than a Calmuck.
High, prominent, and broad cheek-bones ; very little
eyes, widely separated from each other ; a flat and broad
nose ; coarse, greasy, jet-black hair ; scarcely any eye-
brows ; and enormous prominent ears — compose no very
inviting portrait.

" Their women are uncommonly hardy, and on horse-
back outstrip their male companions in the race. The
stories related of their placing pieces of horse-flesh under
the saddle, in order to prepare them for food, are perfectly
true. They acknowledged that it was a common practice
among them on a journey, and that a steak so dressed
became tender and palatable. In their large camps, they
have always cutlers, and other artificers in copper, brass,

* Travels, vol. i., pcirt i., p. 241.

276 THE KALMUKS.

and iron ; sometimes goldsmiths, who make trinkets for
their women, idols of gold and silver, and vessels for their
altars ; also persons expert at inlaid work, enamelling,
and many arts which we vainly imagine peculiar to
nations in a state of refinement."

Again — he writes,* " We afterwards observed a camp
of Calmucks, not far from the track we pursued, lying off
in the plain to the right. As we much wished to visit
that people, it was thought prudent to send a part of our
Cossack escort before in order to ajDprize them of our
inclination, and to ask their permission. The sight of our
carriage, and of the party that was approaching with it,
seemed to throw them into great confusion. We observed
them running backwards and forwards from one tent to
another, and moving several of their goods. As we drew
near on foot, about half a dozen gigantic figures came
towards us, stark naked, except a cloth bound round the
waist, with greasy, shining, and almost black skins, and
black hair braided in a long cue behind. They began
talking very fast, in so loud a tone, and so uncouth a
lan<mao-e, that we were a little intimidated. I shook
hands with the foremost, which seemed to pacify them,
and we were invited to a large tent. Near its entrance
hung a quantity of horse-flesh, with the limbs of dogs,
cats, marmots, rats, &c, drying in the sun, and quite
black. Within the tent, we found some women, though
it was difficult to distinguish the sexes, so horrid and
inhuman was their appearance. Two of them, covered
with grease, were lousing each other ; and it surprized
us that they did not discontinue their work, or even look

* Vol. i., part i., p. 236.

THE KALMUKS. 277

up as we entered. Through a grated lattice, in the side
of the tent, we saw some younger women peeping, of
more handsome features, but truly Calmuck, with long
black hair hanging in thick braids on each side of the
face, and fastened at the end with bits of lead or tin : in
their ears they wore shells, and large pearls, of a very
irregular shape, or some substance much resembling
pearl. The old women were eating raw horse-flesh,
tearing it off from large bones which they held in their
hands. Others, squatted on the ground, in their tents,
were smoking, with pipes not two inches in length, much
after the manner of Laplanders. In other respects, the
two people, although both of eastern origin, and both
nomade tribes, bear little resemblance. The manner of
living among the Calmucks is much superior to that of
the Laplanders. The tents of the former are better con-
structed, stronger, more spacious, and contain many of
the luxuries of life ; such as warm and very good beds,
handsome carpets and mats, domestic utensils, and ma-
terials of art and science, painting and writing The
Calmuck is a giant : the Laplander, a dwarf. Both are
filthy in their persons ; but the Calmuck more so than
perhaps any other nation."

If our view of the Mongol stock is to become general
and systematic, we must add to the Buriat and Olot divi-
sions a third — viz., that of the Khalka-Mongolians or
Khalkas. These are wholly subjected to China; their
occupancy being to the north of the Great Wall, and
(as such) lying on the drainage of Hoang-ho rather than
that of any of the rivers that empty themselves into the
Arctic Sea.

278 THE MONGOLS.

Of this Hoangho River the Khalka-Mongolians occupy
the head-waters. They also occupy the watershed north-
wards— so that the Desert of Cobi is Khalka. The out-
line of this division is imperfectly known, it being only cer-
tain that it is very irregular ; cutting into China, Chinese
Tartary, and Tibet. The Mongolia of the maps is Khalka ;
the Dzungaria, Olot ; the Daouria, Buriat and Tongus.

Let us now contrast the Mongol with the Turk; hav-
ing first noticed the points in which they agree.

The Mongol physiognomy is that of the ruder Turks ;
only exaggerated.

The Mongol habits are those of the Kirghiz — exag-
gerated also in their extremely nomadic character.

The languages belong to the same great Turanian
family.

The tenor of their histories has been alike ; Dzhingiz-
khan on one side, Tamerlane on the other, being the
representatives of their respective heroes.

But—

Though the languages belong to the same great Tura-
nian family, they belong to different divisions of it. To
this add, that the directions of the lines of conquest have
been different. The Mongol sword has chiefly turned its
edge towards China, the Turk towards Europe. Much
follows from this. It is China to which nine-tenths of
Mongolia belong politically. It is China whence Mon-
golia takes its religious creed — this being Buddhism.
The Mongol is a Buddhist ; the Turk, a Mahometan.

At present, the Mongols are a quiet population, emi-
nently amenable to the management of their priests. They
must have been something very different in the Temu-

THE MONGOLS. 279

ginian times. What they were then, or soon after, we
learn best from Marco Polo, who visited the court (or
camp) of Dzhingiz-khan's grandson, in the fourteenth
century. Their manner of warfare, and their military
organization, are thus described: — "When one of the great
Tartar chiefs proceeds on an expedition, he puts himself
at the head of an army of a hundred thousand horse, and
organizes them in the following manner : — He appoints
an officer to the command of every ten men, and others
to command a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand
men, respectively. Thus, ten of the officers commanding
ten men take their orders from him who commands a
hundred ; of these, each ten from him who commands a
thousand; and each ten of these latter from him who
commands ten thousand. By this arrangement, each
officer has only to attend to the management of ten men,
or ten bodies of men ; and when the commander of these
hundred thousand men has occasion to make a detach-
ment for any particular service, he issues his orders to the
commanders of ten thousand to furnish him with a thou-
sand men each ; and these, in like manner to the com-
manders of a thousand, who give their orders to those
commanding a hundred, until the order reaches those
commanding ten, by whom the number required is im-
mediately supplied to their superior officers. A hundred
men are in this manner delivered to every officer com-
manding a thousand, and a thousand men to every officer
commanding ten thousand. The drafting takes place
without delay, and all are implicitly obedient to their
respective sujDeriors. Every company of a hundred men
is denominated a,tuc, and ten of these constitute a toman.

280 THE MONGOLS.

" When the army proceeds on service, a body of men
is sent two days' march in advance, and parties are sta-
tioned upon each flank and in the rear, in order to pre-
vent its being attacked by surprise. When the service
is distant, they carry but little with them, and that,
chiefly, what is requisite for their encampment, and uten-
sils for cooking. They subsist for the most part upon
milk, as has been said. Each man has, on an average,
eighteen horses and mares, and when that which they
ride is fatigued, they change it for another. They are
provided with small tents made of felt, under which they
shelter themselves against rain. Should circumstances
render it necessary, in the execution of a duty that re-
quires dispatch, they can march for ten days together
without dressing victuals : during which time they sub-
sist upon the blood drawn from their horses, each man
opening a vein and drinking from his own cattle. They
make provision also of milk, thickened and dried to the
state of a hard paste (or curd), which is prepared in the
following manner : — They boil the milk, and skimming
off the rich or creamy part, as it rises to the top, put it
into a separate vessel, as butter ; for so long as that re-
mains in the milk, it will not become hard. The latter
is then exposed to the sun until it dries. Upon going
on service, they carry with them about ten pounds for
each man, and of this, half a pound is put, every morn-
in°\ into a leathern bottle or small outre, with as much
water as is thought necessary. By their motion in riding,
the contents are violently shaken, and a thin porridge is
produced, upon which they make their dinner.

" When these Tartars come to engage in battle, they

THE MONGOLS. 281

never mix with the enemy, but keep hovering about him,
discharging their arrows first from one side and then
from the other, occasionally pretending to fly, and during
their flight, shooting arrows backwards at their pursuers,
killing men and horses, as if they were combating face to
face. In this sort of warfare the adversary imagines he
has gained a victory, when in fact he has lost the battle ;
for the Tartars, observing the mischief they have done
him, wheel about, and, renewing the fight, overpower his
remaining troops, and make them prisoners in spite of
their utmost exertions."

It is not necessary to identify the Mongol with the
" fugax Parthus" of antiquity, so formidable to Rome
and Persia. At the same time, true Mongol conquests
have taken place within the period of definite history,
both in Persia and in India, and at the present moment
the Mongolian language is spoken in the Hazara country
— in the north of Affghanistan. This gives us a fourth
section — or sub-section — of the family.

The Mongolian alphabet is peculiar, being neither
Arabic nor Chinese. Its history is as follows : —

The earliest Mongol conquerors understood the value
of literature, and soon after the death of Zingiz-Khan
the language was reduced to writing ; the alphabet,
which was subsequently extended to the language of the
Mantshu nation, having been adopted from that of the
Uighur Turks. Amongst the Uighur Turks it was intro-
duced by the Nestorian Christians, an influence of which
the importance in these parts has yet to be duly appre-
ciated. As such, its original source is the Syriac. Of
the Syriac alphabets it is most like the Palmyrene.

282 THE TUNGUSIANS.

It is written vertically ; i. e., so as to be read from the
top of the page to the bottom.

The Mongols (Kalmuks) of Stavropol have been con-
verted to Christianity.

The Tungtjsians. — The Turks and Mongols, with a
certain amount of common characters, differ sufficiently
to be referred to separate divisions of the same stock.
The same applies to the Turks and Ugrians. The same
applies to the Tungus, or Tungusians.

This is a word of equal value in the way of classifica-
tion with the three just noticed. It is the name of a
primary division of the great Turanian group of tribes
and nations. It originates in the word donki-men,
the term by which some of the populations included in
the class designate themselves. The Chinese form is
Tung-chu. This gives us the Russian Tungus.

A more northern position, a greater range of climate,
an approach in some cases to the hunter and fisher, rather
than to the pastoral, states, a more partial abandonment
of the original Shamanistic Paganism, and a later lite-
rature, are the chief points which differentiate the Tungus
tribes from the Mongol.

In the way of conquest the Tungusian analogues of
the Temuginian Mongols, and the Osmanli, Seljukian,
and Timurian Turks are the Mantshu — the latest con-
querors of China.

If we lay out of our account the unimportant tribes of
the Southern or Soiot Samoyeds, and also some equally
insignificant fractions of the Aino class on the coast of
the Sea of Okhotsk, we shall find that the populations
common to the Russian and the Chinese Empires are

THE TUNGUSIANS. 283

(a) the Turk, (b) the Mongol, and (c) the Tungus— the
Turk on the western, the Mongol in the middle, and the
Tungus on the eastern frontier. Chinese Tungusia lies
due north of Peking, coinciding pretty accurately with
the water-system of the Amur or Saghalin River — Mon-
golia lying to the westward. The particular section of
the stock here occupant, is the Mantshu ; so that Chinese
Tungusia is Mantshuria, and vice verscu. The Mantshu
Tungusians are the most civilized of the family, having
adopted both the creed and alphabet of the Mongolians,
to say nothing about the effects of the Chinese conquest.

In Russian Siberia, on the other hand, we have the
Tungusians in their more extreme character of rude no-
mades; still unlettered, still pagan, or but imperfectly
Christian. And here they extend far and wide — from
the Sea of Okhotsk to the Yenisey ; from Daouria to the
Arctic Sea. The Tshapodzhir on the Lena are Tungus.
The Lamut on the Sea of Okhotsk are Tungusian also.
Daouria, when not Mongolian, is Tungus. The two
rivers that feed the Yenisey from the east — the two Tun-
guskas — proclaim, by their name, the Tungus character
of their occupants. The Vitim Steppe and the parts
about Nertshinsk and Barguzin are Tungus.

The Tungus area, then, is wide — very wide. We
may add that it is irregular in outline, because, in some
instances, the stock has encroached on its neighbours ; in
others, its neighbours have encroached upon it. The
latter has, probably, been the case with the Yakuts; inas-
much as all evidence shews that they have been a popu-
lation whose movement has been from south to north.
If so, some of the older and more northern occupants of

284 THE TUNGUSIANS.

their present area must have been, more or less, Tungu-
sian. Others, and perhaps the majority, were Yukahiri.
Some, however, must have been Tungiis.

On the other hand, to say nothing about the Mantshu
conquest of China, the Tungusians must have intruded
themselves into countries originally beyond the pale of
their occupancy, in the parts about the Lower Yenisey ;
the tribes that they either displaced or modified being
Samoyed, Yukahiri, or something intermediate and tran-
sitional to the two. For it must be remembered, that
whilst the language last named is Ugrian, the interjacent
Tungusians are not so.

It is also likely that, if we could reconstruct the ear-
liest ethnology of the drainage of the Amur — of Mant-
shuria — we should find it to be other than what it is at
present. The Korean branch of the stock that will next
be noticed, must have extended itself further northwards.
In like manner, the Aino of the Kurilian Islands must
have extended itself further westwards. Both these areas
have been encroached on ; and upon both, the encroach-
ment has been made by Tungusians — the Tungusians of
Mantshuria, or the Mantshu.

The Tungusian approaches the Mongolian, the Ostiak,
or the Eskimo, according as his residence lies north or
south ; within the limit of the growth of trees, or beyond
it; on the Champagne, on the Steppe, or on the Tundra.
On the latter, the horse ceases to be the domestic animal,
and the reindeer or the dog replaces him. Hence, we
hear of the three divisions of the family under notice
of the Horse Tungusians, of the Reindeer Tungusians,
and of the Dog Tungusians.

THE PENINSULAR STOCK. 285

One of the most unexplored parts in all Siberia is in
Tungusia — viz., the country between the Lena and the
head waters of the Kolima, Yana, and Indidzhirka. Its
exploration, however, is said to be in contemplation.

The Peninsulas Stock. — With the exception of the
Namollos of the extreme north-east, and the Aleutian
Islanders, (who are American, in respect to their geo-
graphy, rather than Asiatic,) the remainder of the Sibe-
rian subjects of Russia belong to a stock which the
present writer has named Peninsular, from the fact of
either islands or peninsulas constituting its chief occu-
pancies.

The divisions of the Peninsular stock are —

1. The Koreans of the Peninsula of Korea; partly sub-
ject to Japan, partly to China.

2. The Japanese of Japan and the Lutshu Isles.
With both the Koreans and the Japanese the civilization
of China has taken root.

3. The Aino of the Kurile Islands.

4. The Koriahs.

Of these Peninsulars it is only the last two that are,
in any way, under Russia.

Of the Aino, a small section occupies the continent.
The Russian part of this lies just north of the Chinese
or Mantshurian frontier.

The Koriah division is more important. With the
exception of a tract in the extreme corner of Asia, ex-
tending along Behring's Straits, and at the mouth of the
Lower Anadyr, all that portion of North-eastern Asia
which is neither Yukahiri nor Tungusian, is Koriak or
KorwkL This is a general name. It is general, even

286 THE KORIAK.

when used with Klaprotb/s limitations; when used in
the sense with which it appears in the Asia Polyglotta.
In that valuable repertorium of Siberian philology, the
Kamskadale of the southern part of Kamskatka is raised
to the level of a separate substantive class, contrasted
with, and independent of, the Koriak. In the present
volume the Kamskadale is connected with the Koriak,
and subordinated to it.

Koriak is the name which Klaproth gave ; neither is
there any reason to refine upon it, since it is much easier
to shew a few points in which it is exceptionable, than
to suggest a better one. The area covered by the nu-
merous populations of this group is more remarkable for
its northern position and its relations to the American
continent, than for its magnitude. This is but moderate.
It far falls short of the vast area of the Tungusian Mon-
golian and other Siberian families. From north to
south it extends from 70° to 60° north latitude, its longi-
tude being less definitely marked. It is bounded on
three sides by the sea, although, at the same time, it is
more or less separated from Behring's Straits by the
Asiatic Eskimo ; and it is conterminous on the west and
south-west with the Yukahiri and the Lamut TungTi-
sians.

If Koriak (or Koraeki) be a general term, it is also a
specific one as well. It applies to the whole family at
large ; but it also applies to a particular portion of it —
the Koraeki proper of the northern third of the Peninsula
of Kamskatka, and the parts around the Gulf of Pen-
dzhinsk. These are the central tribes of the group.
On the south come the Kamskadales Proper, a re-

THE TSHUKTSHI. 287

duced and impoverished population ; on the north, the
Tshuktshi.

The Tshuktshi still keep independent of Eussia ; so
that their country can, with great difficulty, be visited.
They seem to be a powerful people. They have en-
croached on the Yukahiri west, and on the Kamskadales
south. The Russians are unwilling or unable to inter-
fere much with them. The chief sources of our informa-
tion are a notice of Matiushkin's in Wrangell's Travels
in Siberia, who visited their country from the west, and
Lieutenant Hooper's work on the Tuski (as he calls the
tribe with which he came in contact), descriptive of the
populations to the north of Behring's Straits. Their
paganism, which extends in an unmodified form through
the whole length and breadth of their area, is of the
Shamanist kind, so prevalent in Central Asia and Siberia ;
their social organization, complex ; their frames and con-
stitutions, vigorous.

The political independence of the Tshuktshi sections
of the Koriak division of the Peninsular stock is one of
the more important points of their ethnography.

Their relation to certain populations of America is
another.

A third point requiring notice is their name.
Generally, when we meet a writer who, having visited
both sides of Behring's Straits, has gone sufficiently far
inland to leave behind him the Eskimo populations which,
both in Asia and America, fringe the coast, we find that
he enlarges upon the physical likeness between the Koriaks
and the American Indians, a likeness which we cannot
but admit as real ; even if we remember the fact of

288 THE TSHUKTSHL

their both standing in contrast to the Eskimo tribes with
which they are in contact, and the likelihood of such
contrast misleading the observer ; inasmuch as two tribes,
unlike a third, may easily pass for being liker each other
than they really are.

Allowing, however, for this, the American physiognomy
of the Tshuktshi Koriaks, or (changing the expression)
the Tshuktshi physiognomy of the North American In-
dians, must be admitted. Valeat quantum.

The name next commands our notice. In the first
place it takes a variety of forms. Lieutenant Hooper
calls the tribes with which he came in contact Tuski,
expressly stating that it is a name applied by the people
themselves to themselves, rather than any foreign appella-
tion, and, also, suggesting an explanation in respect to
its meaning.

The chief forms which are to be contrasted with Mr.
Hooper's Tuski, are Tshutski, Tshuktshi, Tshautsau,
and Tshekto. ,

The chief significations are as follows : — Tshekto is
translated people, and Tshautshau is rendered " settled
men' (Ansassige in the Asia Polyglotta), Mr. Hooper's
rendering of Tuski being " brothers or friends." There
are difficulties here which it would take too long to in-
vestigate. It is more important to guard against certain
ambiguities connected with its application.

It is applied to the population with which we are deal-
ing at the present moment ; viz., the Koriaks Tshuktshi

But it is also applied to a population which we have,
as yet, only cursorily mentioned ; viz., the Eskimos of
the north-eastern extremity of Asia.

INDIANS OF RUSSIAN AMERICA. 289

What these ought to be called will be seen in our
notice of —

The tribes of Russian America. — The first of the
three families into which the aborigines of Russian
America are divided, is —

I. The Eskimo. — Its area is as follows : the whole of
the coast of the Artie Ocean, and the coast from Beh-
ring's Straits to Cook's Inlet, along with the islands of
St. Laurence, Nunivock, and Kadiak, including the
peninsula of Aliaska, and the lower parts of the rivers
Kwichpak, Kuskokwim, and others of less importance ;
the lower "parts, but not the head-waters. As we pro-
ceed inland the type changes.

The particular Eskimo tribes that have been enu-
merated as the occupants of this area, when we get at
their native names, modified as they are by passing
through Russian and German media, are — the Agoleg-
meut,the Kiyataig-meitf, the Magi-meut, the Agul-meut,
the Pashtolig-mewi, the Tatshig-meut, the Mali-'meut, the
Anlyg-meut, the Tshanag-met^, and the Kwichpak-
meut, all ending in meut, and all bearing names of the
same kind, with such words as Appennini-cote, &c, in
Latin. Kwichpack-met^, for instance, is manifestly the
occupants of river Kwichpak,

Add to these the Inkalit, the Inkaleklait, and the
Ifus-kutshevak ; these last being the tribes of the river
/jTiis-kokwini, between the Kwichpak and the Aliaskan
peninsula.

At Cook's Inlet the original Eskimo area ends ; the
occupancy now becoming Athabaskan. At King
(Prince T) William's Sound, however, the Eskimos re-

o

290 THE INDIANS

appear ; but not as the aborigines of the country. Here
it is where we find the most southern members of the
group — the Tshugatsi. The Tshugatsi (or " men of the
sea/' the name being Athabaskan) " state, that, in con-
sequence of some domestic quarrels, they emigrated in
recent times from the island of Kadiak, and they claim,
as their hereditary possessions, the coast lying between
Bristol Bay and Behring's Straits. They are of middle
stature, slender, but strong, with skins often brown,
but in some individuals whiter than those of Europeans,
and with black hair. The men are handsomer than the
women. Their manners were similar to those of the
Kuskutshevak and ether communities living more to
the north ; but in later times they have carried off the
women of the more southern tribes, and from their inter-
marriages with their captives, combined with their long
intercourse with the Russians, their customs, opinions,
and features have undergone a change, so that they
have now a greater resemblance to the inland Indians
than to the northern Eskimos." *

So much for the Eskimos of Russian America ; with
whom, however, the list of Eskimo popidations in general
neither begins nor ends. The great extent of their area
has always commanded the attention of ethnologists.
They fringe the whole coast of the Arctic Sea, and oc-
cupy its islands and peninsulas. They lap round the
shores of Hudson's Bay. Greenland is Eskimo; and
Labrador is Eskimo, as well.

The Eskimo is the only population clearly and un-

* Sir J. Eichardson's Arctic Searching Expedition, vol. i.,
p. 364.

OF EUSSIAN AMERICA. 291

doubtedly common to the two worlds — the Old and the
New — Asia and America ; and hence it has an Asiatic
section, which still stands over for notice. This falls
into two divisions ; a, the Aleutian, and, b, the Namollo.
The Aleutians occupy the whole of that range of
islands which run from Kamskatka to the Aliaskan
Peninsula, Behring's Isle, Copper Isle, Unalashka, the
Eat Isles, the Prebulowiini Isles, the Andreanowsky
Isles, &c.

The Namollos belong to the continent ; Tshuktshi-
noss and the mouth of the Anadyr being their occu-
pancies. Such parts, in short, of the north-eastern
extremity of Asia as are not Koriak are Eskimo — Eskimo-
Namollo, or Namollo-Eskimo.

2. The Athabaskans. — The second section of the
aborigines of Russian America is the Athabaskan, so
denominated because the lake Athabaska is a convenient
geographical centre for its numerous divisions and sub-
divisions. To this belong the Athabaskans of Cook's
Inlet, a population which has been already named.
They call themselves Tnai, or Atna=men ; so that it is
their Eskimo neighbours from whom we get the name
Kenay.

Then there are the Atna of Copper River, a closely
allied tribe ; so that, if we wish to speak very specifically,
we may talk of the Kenay Atnas, and the Copper-river
Atnas, distinguishing between the two. In the present
state of our knowledge this is the safest language, inas-
much as the name itself means but little. There are
several Atna populations ; some closely, some distantly
connected. One lies as far south as New Caledonia,

o2

292 THE KUTSHIN TRIBES.

and belongs to a different division^ of the great North
American group from that to which we refer the Atha-
baskan Atnas ; though, at the same time, the present
distinctions may give way to future investigations.

Both the Atnas under notice reach the sea. On the
other hand, the Koltshani tribes lie inland. This is a
word in the Copper-river dialect of the Atna, meaning
strangers; the Kenay form being Goltsani, with the
slightly modified meaning of guests. Cannibalism is
laid to the charge of these Koltshani, though upon
doubtful grounds. They extend as far inland as the
water-shed between the Copper-river and the Yukon.

The Ugalents, or (with their name in the Eskimo
form) Ugalyach-meut, are a small tribe in the parts
about Mount Elias, consisting of some forty families —
no more.

All these Athabaskans have been described by the
Russians, whose observations have been made from the
side of the coast rather than from the interior.

For the tribes in the direction of the British frontier,
we must seek our information from British sources. The
fur-agents of the parts about the Great Bear Lake supply
us with our ethnology here.

Some of the tribes are common to the two territories,
and all are closely (very closely) allied to that particular
division of the Athabaskans, which are known under the
names of Louclieux, Digothi, and Kutshin; this last
being the designation under which they are fully and
graphically described in the valuable work of Sir John
Richardson already quoted and the authority for what
is forthcoming.

THE KUTSHIX TRIBES. 293

The particular Kutshin tribes which, on evidence more
or less satisfactory, may be placed within the Russian
frontier, are the following : —

1. The Artez-kutshi, or the tough (hard) people.
The 62nd parallel cuts their country ; so that they lie
between the head-waters of the Yukon and the Pacific
The evidence that they extend over the frontier is not
quite conclusive. I infer, however, that they do.

2. The same applies to the Tshu-kutshi, or people of
the water. The banks of Deep-river give us their
occupancy ; but Deep-river is common to both the
Russian and British territory. Number, 100.

3. The Tathzey-kutshi, or people of the ramparts,
the Gens du Foil of the French Canadians, are spread
from the upper parts of the Peel and Porcupine rivers,
within the British territory, to the river of the Mountain-
men, in the Russian. The Upper Yukon is, therefore,
their occupancy. They fall into four bands ; a, the
Tratse-kutshi, or people of the fork of the river ;
b, the Kutsha-lcutshi ; c, the Zeka-thaka (Zi-unka-
kutshi), people on this side (or middle people) ; and, d,
the Tanna-kutshi, or people of the bluffs.

Numbers of men of the Kutsha-kutshi, 90

Ziunka-kutshi, 20

Tanna-kutshi, 100

4. The Teytse-kutshi (people of the shelter) number
about 100 men, and dwell about the influx of Russian-
river; whilst, nearer still to the mouth of the Yukon,
and (probably) conterminous with the Eskimo Kwich-
pak-meut, are —

5. The Tlagga silla, or little dogs. Of the —

29-i THE KOLUTSH.

6, 7. Vanta-kutshi (people of the lakes), with 80,
and the Neyetse-kutshi (people of the open country),
with 40 men, I only find that they belong to the Por-
cupine-river, a river partly British and partly Russian-
South of Mount Elias, or the Ugalents district, the
Russian possessions lose their breadth, and take the
form of a narrow strip of land, interposed between the
British territory and the Pacific ; to which may be added
the islands and archipelagoes as far as 55 N. L.

Here the ethnology is generally considered to change,
and the populations to become —

3. Kolutsh. — I have but little doubt as to the mean-
ing and origin of this word, believing it to be the same
word as the Atna, or Athabaskan, Koltshani (Goltsani)
=stranger (guest).

Of the tribes belonging to the Kolutsh division, the
most important, and best known, are the populations
around the Russian port of Sitka, or Norfolk Sound.

The Indians who speak the language of these parts,
for which (by the way) we have several vocabularies,
are, according to Mr. Green, an American missionary,
6,500.

Next to the Unalashkans of the Aleutian Islands, the
Sitka Indians are the most modified by Russian influ-
ences.

A short vocabulary, collected by Mr. Tolmie, and pub-
lished by Dr. Scouler, of the Tungaas, is sufficient to
shew its Sitka affinities, and, consequently, to place it
in the Kolutsh class; whilst another, equally short,
collected by the late Lieutenant Hooper, from the
Tshil-cot Indians about Lynn's Canal, does the same.

THE KOLUTSH. 295

The Tungaas is spoken over the greater part of Prince
of Wales' Archipelago, and on the coast opposite. At
the southern extremity, however, of the Archipelago, it
is replaced by the Haidah tongue. Now, the Haidah
(along with the Chemmesyan of Observatory Inlet) is
the most northern of the dialects of British Oregon, and,
consequently, is a form of speech (like the Kutshin and
Eskimo) common to the two territories.

Our details are now coming to a close ; the Nehanni
alone standing over. These, according to Mr. Isbister,
" range the country between the Russian settlements on
the Stikine River and the Rocky Mountains, where they
are conterminous with the Carriers of New Caledonia on
the south, and the Dahodinnies of M'Kenzie's River on
the west. They are a brave and warlike race ; the
scourge and terror of the country round. It is a curious
circumstance, and not the less remarkable from the
contrast to the general rule in such cases, that this tur-
bulent and ungovernable horde were under the direction
of a woman, who ruled them, too, with a rod of iron,
and was obeyed with a readiness and unanimity truly
marvellous. She was certainly a remarkable character,
and possessed of no ordinary share of intelligence. From
the fairness of her complexion and hair, and the general
cast of her features, she was believed to have some
Eurojoean blood. Whether through her influence or
not, the condition of the females among the Nehannies
stands much higher than among the American Indians
generally. The proper locality of the Nehanni tribe is
the vicinity of the sea-coast, where they generally pass
the summer. In the winter they range the country in

296 THE KOLUTSH.

the interior for the purpose of bartering, or plundering,
furs from the inland tribes ; acting as middlemen be-
tween them and the Russian traders. They agree in
general character with the Koloochians, having light
complexions, long and lank hair, fine eyes and teeth,
and many of them strong beards and moustaches. They
are not generally tall, but active and vigorous, bold and
treacherous in disposition ; fond of music and dancing,
and ingenious and tasteful in their habits and decora-
tions. They subsist principally on salmon, and evince
a predilection for a fish diet, which indicates their mari-
time origin Like all the north-west tribes, they possess
numerous slaves ; inhabitants, it is understood, of some of
the numerous islands which stud the coast, and are either
taken in war or bouoht of the nei^hbourinsr tribes."*

^Whether these Nehanni be Kolutsh or Athabaskan,
I am unable to say, having seen no undoubted sample
of their language. The description of them would
almost serve for that of theKutshin ; and to the Kutshin
I am most inclined to assimilate them. It is in the
Kutshin lansruasre that their name has a meaning=
•mountaineer; and in the Kutshin country the name
itself (as applied to the Indians of the Big Beaver
Mountains) re-occurs.

Such is the distribution of the aborigines of Russian
America over the three groups known under the deno-
minations of (a) Eskimo, (b) Athabaskan, and (c) Ko-
lutsh. The extent to which the groups run into each
other, their consequently provisional character, and

* Transactions of the British Association, &c, 18-47, p. 121.

THE KOLUTSH. 297

the relations between the north-western Americans and
the north-eastern Asiatics, are exhibited in almost all
the works of the present writer, wherein the subject is
touched upon ; the fact of the Eskimo tribes graduating
into the American Indians, and the Asiatic origin of
the latter being points to which, after the due consi-
deration of the numerous opposite doctrines, he has no
hesitation in committing himself.

C 3

298 THE DIOSCURIANS.

CHAPTER XX.

THE DIOSCURIAN (CAUCASIAN) — ARMENIAN — AND OTHER POPULATIONS OF

THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

The Dioscuriaxs of the mountain-range of Caucasus,
must be distinguished from the Russian Government of
Caucasus. This is absolutely necessary.

It is almost as necessary that the adjective Caucasian,
as a term in Ethnology, should be disused ; and that on
account of the ambiguities it engenders. This has been
the case ever since the word has borne that wide and
general sense which was given it by Blumenbach, and
which has prevailed from his time to the present day —
a sense which makes it comprize nearly all the popula-
tions of Europe, and some of those of Asia and Africa —
Greeks, Italians, Slavonians, Germans, Indians, Arabs,
and Jews. It is clear, that when we come to a subject
so specific as the ethnology of particular tribes occu-
pant of a particular mountain-range, any power so
general as the one just indicated becomes inconvenient.

The term by which I propose here, as I have already
done elsewhere, to replace it, is Dioscur'ain — Dioscu-
r'tas being one of those towns of the sea-coast which are
not only mentioned by ancient writers, but mentioned

THE DIOSCURIANS. 299

with reference to one of the most remarkable character-
istics of modern, as it also was of ancient, Caucasus
This is the multiplicity of languages and dialects. The
business (says Pliny) of Dioscurias had to be trans-
acted through the medium of thirty interpreters. The
number of interpreters that would be requisite for a
similar function in modern Caucasus, is undoubtedly
fewer — the Turkish being pretty generally understood,
and serving as a kind of lingua franca. Nevertheless,
the actual number of separate substantive languages, dia-
lects, and sub-dialects, is not much less than it was in
the second century. Let us see what it amounts to.

1. There is the intrusive and foreign Russian, of such
fortresses as Anape, such towns as Tiflis, and such fron-
tiers as that between the Government of Caucasus, and
the mountains of that name.

2. There is more than one form of the Turk, spoken
in patches more or less isolated ; spoken, too, along the
frontier ; spoken, too, on the Lower Kur. Along the fron-
tier it is the Nogay ; in the chief patches, the Karatshai
and Basian Turk. Practically speaking, these belong to
one and the same language — all the varieties and sub-
varieties being mutually intelligible. It is in the Turk
that a greater number of the geographical names for the
different rivers, mountains, and towns of Caucasus, have
come to us — e. g., the words ending in su (river) and
tau (tagh or dagh=mountairi) ; Koi-m, for instance,
and Kara-fcm.

3. The Armenian lies too far south to be dealt with
as truly Dioscurian. It was, however, doubtless one of
the tongues of Pliny's list.

300 THE DIOSCUKIAXS.

4. The Georgian is truly, and in every respect, Dios-
curian. On the Lower Kur, it is replaced by the
Turk of Shirvan and Sheki. On the Middle and
Upper Kur, for the parts about Tiflis, the particular
dialect called Kartulinian prevails; this being the clas-
sical, standard, or literary Georgian, its alphabet being
peculiar, but, notwithstanding its peculiarities, capable,
through the sacred or ecclesiastical form of writing, of
being traced to and affiliated with the Armenian.

Another form of speech prevails in Mingrelia and
Imeretia; and a third (the Lazic) in that part of the
Pashalik of Trebizond, which lies between Trebizond it-
self and the Georgian frontier.

The fourth form is the Suanic, spoken by the moun-
taineers, north-west

It is clear, that in Georgia the dialectual varieties
increase, the Suanic and Lazic being, for undoubted
dialects, of one and the same language, outlying forms of
speech.

5. After Georgia, comes Circassia — such, at least, is
the usual association. The dialects here are not
less than three in number ; viz., one for the Tsherkes,
who occupy the southern feeders of the Upper and
Middle Kuban; one for the Abassians on the south
and east ; and one for the Kabardinians of the Great and
Little Kabardah, occupants of the Upper portion of the
Terek. Of the Abassian, there is, at least, one sub-dia-
lect, the Alte-kesek or Tapanta.

6. The Lesgian division of the Dioscurians is the
third in point of area, the first in respect to the number
and variety of its forms of speech — Avar, Auzukh,

THE DIOSCURIANS. 301

Tskari, Andi, Dido (Unso), Khasi-khumukh, Akush,
and Kura, being the names of the different vocabularies
representative of its dialects or subdialects. Even if these
be reduced to four primary divisions (as Klaproth re-
duces them), the number of Lesgian forms of speech is
remarkable.

7. The next division wants few things more than a pro-
nounceable name; the two current ones being Tshetshents
and Mizhdzhedzhi (Ghechents and Mizhjeji). Let us call
it Tshetsh. The Tshetsh, Ingush, and Tushi dialects of
this division are known to us.

8. The list closes with the OssSt or Iron language,
with its two dialects, probably, not very distant from
each other.

With this sketch the reader may see his way to
Pliny's thirty interpreters, some of which would be
required, not so much for the tongues of Caucasus
itself, as for those of the opposite coast of the Black
Sea, for the Crimea, for the parts (possibly) beyond
the Caspian. The mountaineers themselves, however,
would require —

For the Georgian forms of speech (say) 2

Circassian 3

Lesgian 4

Tshetsh 2

Iron (Osset) 1

Turk 1

Armenian 1

14

302 THE DIOSCURIANS.

I give this calculation more for the sake of fixing the
reader's attention on an important feature in Dioscurian
Ethnology than for the sake of solving a curious, rather
than important, question of classical scholarship.

I give it, too, with the secondary view of giving pro-
minence to the suggested term Dioscurian.

The previous division and distribution of the Dioscu-
rian populations into Georgians, Circassians, Lesgians,
Mizhdzhedzhi (Tshetsh), and Osset (Iron) is Klaproth's;
and I may state, once for all, that nine-tenths of such
scientific knowledge as we have about Caucasus are
taken from the Asia Polyglotta, the Sprachatlas, and
the Travels in Caucasus (Reise in Kaukasus) of that
author. In several matters of detail he has since been
corrected. Upon the whole, however, his works are the
basis of all subsequent investigations. The extent to
which they have been (or ought to be) modified will be
considered hereafter.

The distribution of these numerous Dioscurians over
their several localities is difficult or easy, according to dis-
tinctness or indistinctness of investigator's view of the
physical geography of the parts whereof they are the oc-
cupants. Of primary importance in this matter is the
direction of the axis of the Caucasian range, and next to
tliis the river-system of the Caucasian drainage.

The axis of the mountains runs from north-west to
south-east, from the mouth of the Kuban and the parts
opposite the Peninsula of Kertsh in the Crimea, to the
Promontory of Baku on the Caspian.

The drainage, therefore, is double; one portion of the
rivers falling into the Black Sea, and one into the Caspian.

THE DIOSCURIANS. S03

The Black Sea influents are the Kuban, and the minor
rivers Enguri, Kion, and Tshorok, running westward.

The Caspian rivers are the Terek, and (of subordinate
importance) the Kuma and the Koisu.

There is, then, the double drainage ; and there is, of
necessity, the water -shed to match. Here the two great
mountains of Elbruz and Kasbeck take prominence —
the former dividing the Kuban from the Terek ; the latter,
the Terek from the Kur.*

Applying these distinctions we find that —

Circassia goes with the Kuban; nine-tenths of its
feeders being Tsherkes. Then comes the area between
the mountains and the Black Sea, This is Circassian so
long as its rivers flow from a water-shed common to them
and the Kuban — there or thereabouts. Kabardinia,
however, lies on the Terek; the upper part of it, of
course.

As the axis of the Caucasus runs eastwards (east by
south-east) the length of the western, or Black Sea, rivers
increases. The drainage of these longer and more
southern rivers is Georgian. On the side, too, of the
Caspian the upper half of the Kur is Georgian. It is
the Kur, indeed, with which Georgia chiefly coincides;
the Kur, the Ehion, and the Tshorok. Both the Georgian
and Circassian areas touch the Euxine; neither one nor
the other touching the Caspian.

The Lesgicm alone does this; coinciding with the
drainage of the rivers that flow between the Terek and
the Promontory of Baku and empty themselves into that

* A good view of the physical geography of Caucasus is to be
found in the fifth volume of the Westminster BevieWjpp^SO— 519.

304 THE DIOSCURIAXS.

sea. On the other hand, no portion of the Lesgian area
reaches, or even approaches, the Euxine.

The Tshetsh, the Iron, and the Basiano-Karatshi
areas are wholly inland — inland, central, and northern.
We must look for them on the water-shed between the
Kuban and the Terek, with the great Elbruz as our
starting-point.

The Karatshai lie to the east of it, and on the drain-
age of the Kuban; the Basian to the west, and on that
of the Terek.

East of the Basian, and equidistant between the two
seas, he the Iron. A line drawn from Gori to Yekaterino-
grad would bisect their country ; which is the water-shed
between the Kur and the Terek — the water-shed be-
tween the Kur and the Terek, and something more.

The upper parts of the southern feeders of the middle
Terek give us the Tshetsh country.

That the Caucasus is only partially Russian, that the
independent Caucasians are brave warriors, that the
Georgians are a handsome population, that the Circas-
sians are the same, that they both trade in their good
looks, and that there is a hero amongst the western tribes
named Shamyl, is understood by even the unlearned
portions of the public. And it is little more than this
that is known to the special geographer, ethnologist, or
politician. The more characteristic parts of the country
are inaccessible. Even Georgia is not wholly reduced,
for the Suanic country, with parts of Imeretia, still pre-
serves a rude independence. Ironistan (for so I call the
Iron or Osset district) has a military road running
through it; and along this, Russians, and those whom the

THE DIOSCURIANS. 305

Russians permit, can travel with ease and safety. But
the gorges and heights of Kasbek are still dangerous.
In Circassia, the Kabardinian portion can be visited,
and so can the reduced districts immediately to the south
of the Lower Kuban, as well as certain points on the
coast. Woe, however, to the traveller who attempts the
mountain-strongholds of the still unconquered Abassians.
There is perilous travelling here, and there is perilous
travelling still greater in Tshetshenia (the Tshetsh or
Mizhdzhedzhi country) and amongst the Lesgians. The
little that is known of Lesgistan is known from the
side of the Caspian, or from the Georgian and Shirvan
frontiers.

Besides the insufficient character of our knowledge,
there is the fact of Caucasus being but imperfectly
Russian, to which it may be added that the most in-
teresting parts are those which are the most independent ;
so that, strictly speaking, Lesgistan, Tshetshenia, and a
great part of Circassia, lie beyond the domain of the
ethnologist of the Russian empire. I limit myself, there-
fore, to the general phenomena of the classification and
geographical distribution of the members of the Dioscurian
class; superadding to this a short notice of the more im-
portant characteristics which, notwithstanding a general
similarity of character, differentiate (so to say) the chief
divisions and sub-divisions.

The Georgians under Russia are Christian, lettered,
and industrial, with a metropolis of the calibre and im-
portance of Tifiis, and a country with a maximum
amount of land fitted for tillage ; but their Christianity is
that of the Armenian, and not that of the Greek Church.

306 THE DIOSCTJRiANS.

It is of long standing, and it brought with it the use of
the alphabet. This is Armenian in its immediate,
Syrian in its remote, origin — Armenian, but disguised.
In the ecclesiastical form the square character of the
Armenian letters is preserved ; in the ordinary alphabet
the angles are all rounded off — and this it is which dis-
guises it. The original government was kingly, i. e.,
that of a consolidated monarchy as opposed to the feudal
organization of Circassia.

The Georgians under Russia are lettered and indus-
trial; less hardy, too, and less brave than the moun-
taineers. But the Suan are not under Russia; and they
are unlettered, hardy, and pastoral.

The Georgians under Russia are Christians after the
manner of the Armenian Church; but the Lazic branch
of the Georgian division is not under Russia, and is not
Christian. It is Turk and Mahometan — with a different
nationality and different traditions.

Less rude and less independent than the Suan, the
Mingrelians and Imeretians (some of whom are governed
by their own princes) hold an intermediate ]}lace to the
populations just named and the Kartulinian Georgians of
the Middle Kur. The Colchians of old were, probably,
members of the Georgian division. On the north-eastern
frontier, either the Georgian type becomes modified by
the Lesgian, or vice versa. This, at least, is what I infer
from the term Grusisch-Caucasisch (Georgio-Caucasian)
in Koch's map.

The Iron (Osset), under Russia, are Christians of
recent (very recent) origin ; their conversion (such as
it is) having come from Russia ; and their church (as

THE DIOSCURIANS. 307

such) being Greek. The Russian alphabet has been
adapted to the sounds of their language.

The Circassians, whether dependent or independent,
are Mahometans ; their Mahometanism having, in many-
cases, been superinduced upon a previous Christianity,
introduced from Georgia, Armenia, Syria, or Byzantium,
in the sixth or seventh century. Their constitution is
feudal ; the Vork being the nobles, the Pshl the re-
tainers. It is they who more especially export their
daughters for sale amongst the Turks.

Klaproth separates the Tshetsh and Lesgians. I
throw them both into a single group. They are Ma-
hometans, with a patriarchal rather than a feudal con-
stitution, independent and unreduced. Shamyl is no
Circassian, but a Lesgian ; the language that gives him
to Circassia being inaccurate. The Lesgians and Tshetsh
are, too, often called Western Circassians. This they
are not The true Western Circassians are the Kabar-
dinians.

The Armenians. — From the undoubted Dioscurians,
who absolutely occupy Caucasus, I pass to the Arme-
nians, whom I place in the same class, but whose area
belongs to the parts south of the mountain-range, rather
than to the mountain-range itself.

The Armenian subjects of Russia fall into two divi-
sions. The first includes what may be called the
Armenians in situ, by which I mean the occupants of
such districts as have been won from Persia and Turkey
by Russia. These are either indigenous to or old inha-
bitants of their several localities. They are found, of
course, in the frontier provinces ; these being on the

308 THE DIOSCURIANS.

south and south-west coasts of the Caspian. The
Armenian here is in the same relation to Russia as the
Rurnanyo of Bessarabia. He is an Armenian on Arme-
nian ground ; but he is Russian, because a certain
amount of this same Armenian ground has changed
masters.

In the second class I place such Armenians as have
been removed from the soil of Armenia, and placed on
that of Russia as colonists or settlers. These may be
anywhere ; wherever, however, they are, they are recent
occupants, and he in the midst of a foreign and strange
population.

The first may be called the Armenians in situ; the
others, the Armenians extra situm. The localities and
number of the latter may be collected from the tables.
Erivan and Ganja are the chief localities of the former.
The Armenians are Christians of the Armenian church,
Mahometan Turkey being the empire from which their
area was won.

Russian Armenia, then, coincides chiefly with the
Russo-Turk frontier.

The Persians of the Russian empire, on the other
hand, belong, chiefly, to the parts won from Persia, their
frontier being the Russo-Persian. They fall into the
same divisions as the Armenians ; viz., the Persians in
situ, and the Persians extra situm. Shirvan, and the
southern coast of the Caspian, give us the Persian area ;
Shirvan being, more or less, Turk also. Some Kurd
populations belong to this branch, as may be seen from
either Garzoni's grammar of their language, or any of
the ordinary vocabularies.

THE TALISH. 309

The Talish (described by Fraser as follows) is pro-
bably Lesgian in blood, though Persian in language.

" The district of Talish, according to the information I
obtained, includes that portion of the mountainous tract
extending from the Suffeedrood, or, perhaps, only from
a pass a little further west, to the point where it is lost
in the plains of Mogham, at Andina Bazar. I know
not whether the name of Talish applies originally to the
district itself, or to the tribes which occupy it, but it is
now used indifferently for both. These various tribes,
or clans, are probably descended from one stock ; they
certainly have the same appearance, as well as the same
manners and customs, and the same dispositions. What-
ever may have been the nature or number of their sub-
divisions, they all, but a few years ago, obeyed Mustapha
Khan, a chief of so much power and authority, that he
had the hardihood to oppose the arms of Aga Mahomed
Khan, the late King of Persia, himself.

" The power of that monarch, however, was too great
for the Talish chief, who took the resolution of inviting
the Russians to his assistance, and gave them occupancy
of Lankeroon; promising, at the same time, to yield
them obedience as sovereigns of the country. In the
year 1812, Mustapha Khan and the Russian garrison,
consisting of three hundred men, were driven by the
Persians out of Lankeroon, which after this time, was
fortified and supplied with a garrison of two battalions
of Persian infantry, a company of artillery, with five
twelve-pounders, and one thousand five hundred Ghee-
lanee irregular troops.

" This force proved insufficient to protect it from the

310 THE TALISH.

efforts of the Russians, who attacked it on the 13th of
January, 1813, with a force of two thousand infantry,
one thousand Cossacks, and three vessels of war ; and
who carried it by assault, after sustaining a loss, in killed
and wounded, of one thousand two hundred men, among
the latter of whom was their brave commander, General
Kutlerousky.

" Mustapha Khan continued till his death in possession
of Russian Talish, acknowledging a nominal obedience to
the authorities of that empire, who, indeed, never de-
manded more ; and he has been succeeded by his seven
sons, who have shared between them the whole country,
from a little to the westward of Kergonrood all the way
to Mogham. The present King of Persia, with a view of
weakening the family of Mustapha Khan, distributed
the whole of Persian Talish among the principal families
that remained, confirming to each such portion of
country as it had become possessed of. He also created
them khans, by way of increasing their importance, and
giving them a motive for repressing the predatory in-
cursions of Mustapha Khan's family. Of these chiefs,
the principal are— 1st, Mahomed Khan Massaul, who
occupies the eastern part of the district, and whose clan
is very powerful. 2nd, Ibraham Khan, of whom I know
nothing. 3rd, Mahomed Reza Khan, of Kiskar, or
Geskar, further to the west, who is more powerful than
the two preceding. 4th, Mahomed Khoolee Khan, who
lives at the village Poonul, still further to the west.
These are all under the authority of the Princes of
Gheelan. 6th, Mahomed Khan Asalumeh, whose yeilak
is called Leomere, has a powerful clan ; but Balla Khan,

THE TALISH. 311

of Aghabler, the 7th, whose country extends westward
to the Kussian boundary, though his family was not
originally of great importance, is now considered chief
of all. His brother, Meer Goonah Khan, has been joined
in authority with him, by Abbas Meerza, to whose govern-
ment of Azeibijan both these chiefs are attached.

" These tribes, which have several features of character
in common with the Lesghais of Dagestan, unite many
of the better qualities of highlanders with the barbarity
of savages. Their country being more accessible, and
their chiefs more under control than those of the
Lesghais, they cannot be such systematic robbers,
neither do they embark so regularly in the business of
taking prisoners for sale or for ransom, which those
formidable banditti practise ; but property and life are
not at all more sacred in their hands, for they are con-
tinually marauding among themselves, and plundering
their immediate neighbours whenever they can. Murder,
I was assured it is an every-day crime with them, and
no stranger would be safe for an hour in their country
without the protection of their chiefs, or those whom their
chiefs must obey.

" These freebooters, however, are brave, and are devoted
to their chiefs. They are active and patient of fatigue,
but are treacherous, merciless, and rapacious towards all
the world beside. I have heard of very few good qua-
lities which they possess, and yet I think they are
interesting, from the many points of resemblance in
their patriarchal or feudal economy to the highlanders
of our own country, as they were in old times. There
is amongst these tribes not only the same devoted

312 • THE TALISH.

attachment of clansmen to their chief, but among that
chief's retainers one might discover the same description
of attendants — gillies and henchmen — which constituted
the followers of a highland laird.

" The sword and the rude firelock of the chief were
borne in charge by one young man, while another took
care of his cloak, and a third of his pipe. Others, again,
were ready to assist his steps, or stand by his horse's
head, on occasions of danger or difficulty. Crowds of
idle hangers-on stood before the window, or lounged
lazily about the doors, awaiting their lord's appearance,
and started into motion with the same sj>ringing activity
whenever he gave the signal for marching.

" But, as the highlands of Scotland are far outdone in
height and difficulty by the rugged mountains of Talish,
so does the Talish mountaineer surpass the Scottish
Highlander in the strength, ease, and agility with which
he springs up the longest and most precipitous passes;
even the little boys dashing up the steep faces of the
hills after the straying cattle, astonished me by the
facility with which they moved along the most danger-
ous places, as if upon the plainest ground ; and I re-
member on a trying occasion, envying the wind and
powerful muscles of a mountaineer, who, overtaking me
after a much longer journey than I had performed,
bounded from stump to stump, and from rock to rock,
with the ease of a mountain goat, while I could hardly
crawl along as we toiled up the steep ascent

" The nature of the country, and the active modes of
life of these people, have a great effect upon their general
appearance. They are for the most part spare, raw-

THE TALISH. 313

boned men, of robust though not tall frames, with
countenances not unlike the Highlanders of Scotland.
Their dress consists of a large loose pair of trowsers, made
of coarse grey or dark brown stuff, reaching below the
ancles, and generally tied into the charucks or shoes,
which are nothing more than a leathern sock drawn
round the instep, and tied on by a thong passing many
times round the ancles. These are made to fit, or rather
to draw very tight, and appear sufficient to guard the
foot against the stones, while they ply so easily as to be
very pleasant to the wearer, and enable him to move
along at a great pace. The only vest they wear is a sort
of ulcaluc or long-tailed vest, fitted tight to the body,
the skirts of which are stuffed into the trowsers, so that
the bulk of the nether man greatly exceeds that of the
upper parts. The head is covered by a sheep-skin cap
of red or black wool. About the waist these mountaineers
wear a leathern girdle from which depends the formid-
able commeh, or Gheelanee knife, and over their shoulders
they carry their taffung, in the use of which they are
very expert. The ammunition is carried in numberless
rows of loops for cartridges on the breast of his vest and
other parts of his person, or in small gourds called
cuddoos, hollowed out to serve for powder-horn, &c. In
his hand he carries a basket of plaited grass, in which he
stows his provision or plunder. Such is the complete
costume of a Talish Highlander."*

This is the only description I have seen of this re-
markable population.

* " Travels and Adventures in the Persian Provinces." By T.
Eraser.

314 THE KUZZILBASH.

Persian Settlements. — The Kuzzilbash. — In the
governments of Astrakhan and Orenburg there are two
Persian settlements, of unascertained (but of no very-
considerable) size. They consist of Persian captives,
rescued and ransomed from the Kirghiz. The Turks
call the Persians of Persia Proper, Kuzzilbash (Red-
heads), and, as the colonies in question are within the
Turk area, they may be distinguished as the Kuzzilbash
colonies.

The Sarts, or Bokharians. — A Persian of Bokhara,
as opposed to one of Persia Proper, is called a Sart. Of
these Sarts there is a colony in the country of the
Tobolsk Tartars, in the neighbourhood of Tyumen.

With these Persian Sarts — Persian in language, and
Bokkarian in origin — ends the list of those populations
whose country is either wholly contained within the
limits of the Russian empire, or else cuts its frontier, so
as partially to belong to it — the Swedes of Finland, the
Germans of Courland, Livonia, Esthonia, and the colo-
nies, and the Russians Proper, excepted.

To the Russians Proper the concluding chapter will
be devoted. The Germans and Swedes are only named.
Their numbers may be got from the tables. The general
character of their ethnology is supposed to be known.

The other foreign elements, unattached to any par-
ticular portion of their native area, are —
Jews —

Talmudic 1,054,407

Karait 5,725—1,060,132

Gypsies 48,247

Greeks 46,773

DIOSCUMAN SPECIMENS.

315

To these may be added (all in inconsiderable num-
bers) some Arnauts (Albanians or Skipitar), Indians,
and Frenchmen ; for all of which the tables give the num-
ber— though only j 'or Russia.

This should be remembered: — The statistics of the
Geographical Society take no cognizance of the Grand
Duchy of Finland, nor yet of the Kingdom of Poland
For these, then, I only give the General Ethnology — not
the numerical details.

The following tables give us a short specimen of the
chief Dioscurian forms of speech. Upon these I have
abstained from enlarging. In more than one work I
have stated both what their real affinities are, and what
they are not They are not with the so-called Indo-
European tongues, and they are with the so-called
mono-syllabic ones, especially those of Tibet and the
Western* Himalayas.

(A.)

ENGLISH.

GEORGIAN.

ARMENIAN

One

erti

mi

Two

ori

yergu

Three

sami

yeryek

Four

otkhi

tshors

Five

khuti

hink

Sun

mse

ariekag

Moon

mtvare

lusin

Star

varsklavi

asdeg

Fire

zezkhli

hur

* Transactions of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science (Cambridge, 1845) ; Varieties of Man ; Ethno-
logical Article in Orr's Circle of Sciences. To this list add an
elaborate paper of Mr. Hodgson's of Nepaul, in the Transactions
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

p2

316

DIOSCUFJAN SPECIMENS.

(A) continued.

ENGLISH.

GEORGIAN.

ARMENIAN

Water

tskhali

tshur

Tooth

kbili

adamn

Foot

pekhi

odn

River

mdinare

kyed

Mountain

mta

sar

(B.)

ENGLISH.

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Sun

Moon

Star

Fire

Water

Tooth

Foot

River

Mountain

ENGLISH.

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Sun

Moon

Star

Fire

Water

Tooth

Foot

Fiver

Mountain

AVAR.

ANZTJKH.

TSHARI.

ANDI.

DIDO.

KHASI-
KHCMAKH.

ZO

zo

hos

se-v

zis

za.-ba

ki-jro

te-go

ko-na

ttshe-qu

ki-no

ku-ra

shab-<70

tav-go

khab-jro

khlyob-gu

so-nno

sham-fta

ukh-jro

xikh-go

ukh-g'o

boo-gu

vi-no

muk-&a

shu-gro

fho-gu

shu-go

in-stu-gu

se-nno

khe-ra

bSk

bak

bak

mitli

buk

barkh

moots

moots

moots

ports

butsi

bars

za

zoa

zabi

za

za

zuka

za

za

za

za

zi

za

htlim

htlini

khini

tlen

htli

sin

sibi

sibi

sibi

ziul

kizu

kertshi

POg

POg

POg

tshuka

rori

dzhan

hor

or

or

gad-or

ehu

nikh

mehr

mehr

meer

pil

thlad

svmtu

TSHET-
SHENTS.

tsa

shi

koe

di

pkhi

malkh

but

sid

tse

khi

tsargish

kok

malar

lam

(C.)

INGUSH. TUSHI.

tsa tsa

shi shi

koe ko

di eu

phki pkhi

malkh matkh

but but

seta teru

tse tse

khii khi

tsergish tserka

kog kog

* dokha-khi khi

lamartsh kmati
* This=great water.

TSHERKES.

se

tu

shi

ptle

tkhu

dgeh

masah

vhagoh

rnapfa

psi

dsheh

tie

psi

bgi

AKrSH.

za

khui-ai

nb-al

ohv-aZ

khny-aZ

beri

baz

suri

za

shin

znlve

kash

erklo

dubur

ABAS.

seke

uk-5a

kh-^a

psi-6a

khu-5a

marra

mis

yatsha

mza

dzeh

pits

share

adzi

bukh

THE RUSSIANS PROPER. 317

CHAPTER XXI.

THE RUSSIANS PROPER — GREAT, LITTLE, WHITE, RED — DIFFUSION, ETHNOLO-
GICAL AND POLITICAL — PANSLAVONISM.

The Russians Proper now remain to be noticed. As
members of the Great Sarmatian Stock, they stand in
contrast with all the populations already enumerated,
save and except the Poles, the Servians, the Bulgarians,
the Lets, and the Lithuanians. As Slavonic, rather
than Lithuanic, Sarmatians, they are contrasted with
these last.

To the Servians they are most nearly allied ; indeed, if
it were not for the displacement effected by the different
Non-slavonic populations of Wallachia, Moldavia, and
Transylvania, the most southern members of the Russian
division — the Rusniaks, or Ruthenians of Bessarabia,
Bukhovinia, and Gallicia — would, probably, graduate
into the northern Servians.

Like the Servians, the Russians take their Christianity
from Byzantium, and (so having done) belong to the
Greek Church. For the same reason, their alphabet is
of Greek origin ; its accredited history being as follows :
In the ninth century, the Byzantine monks, Cyrillus

318 THE KUSSIANS PROPER.

and Methodius, preached to the Slavonians of the Middle
Danube; some of whom were the ancestors of the pre-
sent Servians; but others, the occupants of certain
parts of Transylvania and Hungary, anterior to the
Majiar invasion. Some, too, were Bulgarians. I put
the statement in this circumlocutory manner, because
the exact Slavonic form of speech which the oldest Bible
translation and the earliest Slavonic literature repre-
sent, is not a matter of absolute certainty; and to call
it simply Servian, simply Bulgarian, or simply Ruthe-
nian, might be inaccurate. The alphabet, however, in
which it was embodied, is safely, as well as currently, called
the Cyrillic, or Cyrillian. It was based (as has been
stated) on the Greek, but was modified in its application.
In this modification, the sound principle, which the alpha-
bets of Roman origin take such delight in violating,
viz., that of coining new letters for such new sounds as
demand them, was adopted, and sixteen new symbols
were added. A further modification of this Cyrillic al-
phabet, by Peter the Great, gives us the modem Russian
alphabet — i. e., the old Slavonic, common to both Servia
and Russia, modified. Since Russia herself has taken
a part in the propagation of Christianity amongst the
tribes in subjection to her, the Ziranian, Permian,
Ostiak, and other Ugrian tongues have been reduced to
writing — the alphabet being the Russian. The same is
the case with the Iron or Osset, so far as it is written
at all; and, to a slight extent, with the Circassian. At
any rate, though the proper Circassian alphabet is the
Turkish, I have before me a Russo-Circassian Lexicon
in Russo-Circassian letters. The languages to which,

THE KUSSIANS PROPER 319

either the Russian alphabet itself, or an alphabet formed
from the Greek, and (as such) akin to it, is applied, are
as follows: —

Slavonic. — Servian and Bulgarian — Illyrian for the
old literature, but not for the new. On the other hand,
the Polish, Bohemian, and modern Illyrian (of Dalmatia,
&c), are written with Roman letters.

Non-Slavonic. —

Ugrian. — Ziranian, Permian, Wotiak, Tsheremis,
Tshuvash, Mordvin. The Fin of Finland is written in
Roman letters.

Eskimo. — The Aleutian of the Aleutian Islands —
Unalashka, &c.

Dioscurian. — Iron (Osset), Circassian (partially).

Roman. — Rumanyo of the Danubian Principalities.

The Russian alphabet indicates that the Christianity
of the nation that uses it is Greek. No Romanist or
Protestant country does so. Respecting the Bosnians,
who are Mahometan, I am unable to say how far the
few that write at all follow the letters of the Koran, the
Servians, or the Dalmatians. Of the Greek church,
generally, the alphabets are all Greek — either Greek
direct (or the Greek of Athens), or indirect Greek; indi-
rect Greek meaning Cyrillic, old Illyrian, and Russian —
Greek derivatives.

The dialects of the Russian language demand notice
from the very fact of their being so unimportant ; indeed,
the Great Russian finds its proper analogue in the Eng-
lish of the United States. Spread over Central Asia,
Siberia, and North-western America, it is spoken with
the minimum amount of dialectical difference, and the

320 THE RUSSIANS PROPER.

minimum amount of difference between it and the
written language. All this indicates the recency of its
diffusion, combined with the homogeneous character of the
form of speech diffused. At the same time it is not to
be expected that with Lithuania, Ugrian, and Turk
frontiers, with portions of its area once Turk, Ugrian, and
Lithuanic, there is no change as we proceed from the
centre of Muscovy to the circumference. The dialects of
Olonets, Susdal, and similar (more or less) frontier locali-
ties, have been noticed. There is a notable proportion
of Ugrian in both; as there is said to be of Lithuanic in
the White Russian of Smolensk.

The epithet white brings us to a fresh point of
ethnology. There are Russians of three kinds — White
Russians, Great Russians, and Little Russians.

The White Russians are (as has just been stated)
those of the Government of Smolensk, their frontier be-
ing Lithuanic, their original political relations Lithuanic,
and (as such) some of their differentiating characteristics
Lithuanic also. Haxthausen states that they are weaklier
in body, and worse-looking in face, than the others.

The Little Russians coincide with the Polish frontier,
as it was originally; the Ukraine and the south-west
governments being their chief area. They have the
credit of being as much better-looking than the majority
as the White Russians are worse. They extend into
Austria, and in Hungary, Bukhovinia, and Gallicia, are
known as Rusniaks (also as Ruthenians) ; Malorussian is
their Muscovite name. The present writer, however,
has called them Rusniak and Ruthenian, even when in
Russia A good deal more than I can either confirm or

THE RUSSIANS PROPER. 321

contradict, lias been said about their separate nationality.
It lies, I imagine, much within the same limits as that
of the English and the Scotch — Kiev (and neither Moscow
nor St. Petersburg) being the Malorussian Edinburgh.

The Great Russians are the true Muscovites of Novo
gorod and Moscow, the reducers of Olonets, Archangel,
Siberia, and North-Western America.

Numbers (in round numbers and according to Schaf-
farik) : —

Great Russians 35,000,000

Little Russians 13,000,000

White Russians 2,700,000

Total 50,700,000

Red Russians are sometimes spoken about. This
arises out of a blunder. A portion of Polish (Little)
Russia had a city named Tsherven: now, Tsherven
means Red. Hence the misnomer.

Smolensk, Mohilev, Minsk, Vitepsk, Grodno, Vilna,
and Bialystock are the White Russian ; Pultava, Kharkhov,
Tshernigov, Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia, Ekaterinoslav, Kher-
son, Bessarabia, and Taurida are the Little Russian
Governments; the rest being Great Russian.

It is a common statement that the Kosaks are Little,
rather than Great, Russians — Malorussians, Rusniaks, or
Ruthenians, rather than true Muscovites. Undoubtedly,
there is a large amount of Rusniak blood amongst them.
To argue, however, from this to the existence of a se-
parate nationality, or a distinction of pedigree, would be
unsafe in practice as well as theory. Neither are the
most Malorussian of the Kosaks other than Muscovite

p3

322 THE KUSSIANS PROPER.

in essentials, nor are all the Kosaks in the same cate-
gory. There is, probably, some Dioscurian blood amongst
them; there is undoubtedly some Polish — also some
Mongolian (for the Kalmuks and the Kosaks are es-
pecially stated to intermarry), and, besides the Mon-
golian, Polish, and Dioscurian, no trifling amount of
Tartar (Turk) elements. The word itself is Turk
(meaning mounted-horseman and robber); and certain
Turk tribes bear it as a national and native designation,
e. g., some of the Kirgiz, or Kirgiz Kasak.

The Dnieper is the oldest Kosak river, and the
Ukraine the original Kosak locality; the former of
which terms half explains the latter. Ukraine means
boundary, or March — so that the Kosaks were the
military settlers of the frontier, endowed with certain
privileges, and with a peculiar organization appropriate
to their functions of wardens, marchmen, protectors
of the boundary, &c. This character they still main-
tain, however, far from their original March. Their func-
tion is to fight, and this function implies the possession
of certain rights. It is the violation of these privileges,
and the infringement of the independent character of
their several organizations, which have evolved certain
Kosak discontents, and (occasionally) certain Kosak re-
bellions. Grievances of this kind, and not any separate
substantive nationality, as has been vainly imagined,
are to be found amongst them; and, when found, they
may be noted, but not overvalued. The general rule as
to their military capacity is what we expect a priori. It
bears a definite ratio to their duties. On the newer
frontiers they are hardier than in the older settlements,

THE RUSSIANS PROPER. 323

and the stronger the resistance of the coterminous popu-
lations, the sharper the spear of the opposition frontagers.
Thus the Kosaks of the Kuban and Terek (in other
words, of the Caucasian frontier) are believed to be more
warlike than those of the Don. The other Kosaks are
those of the Ural (or Yaik), the Terek, the Irtish, the
Tobol, &c.

In the previous sketch of the early history of the
Slavonic population, notice was taken of the Russia of
the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries only ; the Russia
of the earliest converts to Christianity; the Russia of
Olga, Sviatoslaf, and the early Russian kings. The
difficulties, too, involved in the name Russ, and the
uncertainties as to the early occupants of the parts about
Novogorod, were indicated. I see nothing distinctly in
respect to this northern city — the second of the two
points to which we trace the early streams of Muscovite
history ; indeed, the only facts of which I feel confident,
require a very general expression. From Kiev north-
wards and from Kiev eastwards, ran the lines of Slavonic
occupancy; the valley of the Dnieper leading across the
water-sheds to those of the Volkhov and the Volga.
Hereby, the Ugrian populations were more displaced
than the Lithuanic, and, probably, the Lithuanic more
than the Turk. Of some of the special Slavonic popu-
lations who thus extended themselves, Nestor gives the
names. These were the Polyane, the Derevlyane, the
Dregovitshi, the Polotshane, the Syevera, and others.
The Desna, the Sula, and the Polota, are the rivers upon
which they are more especially located ; the present
governments of Kiev, Orel, Kaluga, Smolensk (partly),

321 THE MONGOL CONQUEST.

Novogorod (partly), being the eminently Russian local-
ities. The Poles and Lithuanians pressed upon them on
the west ; the Pripecz being a Polono-Lithuanic river,
rather than a Russian one. As to the southern govern-
ments, they were Turk — Khazan and Petsheneg.* So
was the greater part of the Volga — Khazar for the parts
about Kazan, Bulgarian for Astrakhan. The Ugrians,
in Nestor's time, still predominated on the Oka and the
parts beyond the Valdai hills. There were some Scan-
dinavians in the north ; but how they became Slavonized
is uncertain.

Volhynia and Podolia were battle-fields- between the
Russian and the Pole ; the valley of Don, a battle-field
between the Russian and the Turk. Of the Ugrian
struggles in the north, the history is obscure ; though
such struggles there were. Novogorod was the point
from which the line of conquest in this direction origi-
nated ; Olonets, Archangel, Vologda, and Viatka, the
parts reduced.

The Mongol conquest has already been noticed. It
was certainly a notable event in Russian history. Never-
theless, I doubt whether its effects have been rightly
appreciated, either ethnologically or politically :• ethno-
logicalhj, it has, most undoubtedly, been misunder-
stood. It has been supposed to have stamped such
physical and moral features as the Russian may
possess in common with the Northern Asiatic upon
the Slavonians of the north and east — to have orien-
talized them, so to say. Now, without saying what
these features are, we may safely lay them to another
account ; viz., the original Ugrian basis of the northern

IVAN THE FOURTH. 325

and central areas, and the Turk and Turk-Ugrian
basis of the southern. Of much direct Mongol inter-
mixture— Mongol as opposed to Turk — there is no
satisfactory evidence.

Upon the >political effects I speak with less confi-
dence. I do not, however, find that it prevented the
encroachment of the Slavonic area upon the Ugrian,
This seems to have proceeded in the Mongolian, the Prse-
Mongolian, and the Post-Mongolian times equally. The
Turk area of the south it probably did preserve from
diminution. It also favoured the consolidation of the
Polish and Lithuanian powers.

In the latter half of the fifteenth century reigned Ivan
the Fourth. He it was who began that career of foreign
conquest which Peter the Great reduced to a policy.
In 1552 and 1554, Kazan and Astrakhan, with their
Turk dynasties, and their Turk and Ugrian populations,
became Russian. The conquest of the Middle Don
followed ; a conquest which first carried the Russian
frontier towards the Black Sea. The sea, however, had
yet to be reached by it. To the east lay the steppes of
the present Government of Caucasus ; to the west, those
of Taurida and the Crimea — both Turk, neither Rus-
sian.

The Ural, too, had yet to be crossed. Over the last
quarter of the sixteenth and the whole of the seven-
teenth centuries, we may spread the reduction of Siberia
and North-western America. The history of this is the
history of so much individual enterprize, rather than
that of a nation or a government ; indeed, for the earlier
portion, and for the conquests as far as the Irtish, it

326 SIBERIA, INGRIA,

is the particular history of Yermak and his Kosaks —
Yerrnak, the conqueror of Siberia, one of the hardiest
and boldest of that hardy and bold class of adventurers
who, Russian, English, French, Spaniard, or Portuguese,
have diffused European civilization over almost the
whole of the New World, and over so much of the Non-
European portion of the Old.

Siberia was Russian anterior to the accession of Peter
the Great — Siberia, Tungusia, and Kamskatka. In
A. D. 1690, that monarch mounted the throne. The
additions that he himself made were but moderate.
Fisst in importance was the province of Ingria, upon
which his new capital had to be founded. At the ac-
cession of Peter, the site of St. Petersburg was a part of
Sweden.

Along with Ingria, went Esthonia and Livonia, as
well as a part of Finland. Recent as is the reduction of
the other parts of the Grand Duchy, Viborg was lost to
Sweden as early as 1721. The peace of Nystadt con-
firmed these accessions — accessions to Russia, losses to
Sweden ; won by Peter, lost by Charles ; German in
their original politics, Swedish since the time of Gustavus
Adolphus ; once, too, Polish, and once independent It is
hard to say how their present nationality comports itself.
The Lutheran creed, and the German language, are its
chief tangible elements ; i. e., in Livonia and Esthonia.
In Viborg, the affinities are more definitely Swedish —
the language, where it is not Finn, being that of
Sweden.

Livonia is both Let and Ugrian ; Esthonia, Ugrian
only. Peter's was the second of the reigns under which

AND KURLAND ANNEXED. 327

the great accessions to the political power of Russia were
effected ; and, perhaps, it may be said that Peter's con-
quests were the most important of all. The conquests
from Sweden gave him St. Petersburg — to go no fur-
ther; but they did more than this — they made the
Grand Duchy of Kurland and certain parts of Lithu-
ania doubly desirable. In the direction of the Black
Sea heavy blows were hit also, and Azov was made into
a naval arsenal, minitant to the Crimea and Caucasus.
Astrakhan, too, was rendered effective against Persia ;
and the Caspian fleet took form.

Its function was to enable the Czar to interfere in the
affairs both of Persia and Caucasus — eventually of Inde-
pendent Tartary also. In Peter's reign Derbend was al-
ready appropriated by Russia.

From 1725 to 1762, was a period of comparative re-
pose ; but in '62 began the eminently aggressive reign
of Catherine — not the most unscrupulous monarch of
her time — not the most unscrupulous, nor yet the most
able ; for her cotemporary was Frederic the Great
of Prussia — the appropriator of Silesia, and the joint
mutilator of Poland. For this reign, Kurland requires
notice as well as Poland ; whilst the Turkish frontier on
the south, and the Polono-Turkish relations bring in
Austria and the name of Maria Theresa.

Kurland's relations to Poland, in the zenith of its
power, were those of a fief to a sovereign state. Inter-
nally, the Dukedom was elective, but hereditary; here-
ditary to the line of Kettler.

In this line a member of the last generation married
the niece of Peter the Great, Anna, who survived him —

328 THE MUTILATIONS OF POLAND.

afterwards to become Empress of Russia. We know
what this must lead to. There is candidate after can-
didate for the Dukedom ; viz., a surviving brother of
the last Duke, a natural son of the King of Poland,
Menzikoff of Russian notoriety of power, and Biron
more famous than even Menzikoff, who held the Duchy,
visited Siberia as an exile, re-held it, and got displaced
again. Meanwhile, anarchy increased in Poland; and
when this reached its climax, and the times of the second
mutilation came on, Kurland transferred itself bodily
to Russia by an act of the States.

But the first mutilation of Poland preceded this; the
occasion being the anarchy into which the elective cha-
racter of the Polish constitution plunged the State when-
ever the Crown of the Republic (strange combination of
words) became vacant, the extent to which Stanilaus
Poniatovski was a mere Russian nominee, the adores-
sive policy of the King of Prussia, and the desire on the
part of Russia to round off her frontier by the posses-
sion of Mohilev and Vitebsk. Mohilev, therefore, and
Vitepsk went to Russia in A. D. 1772; when Prussia
got Prussian Poland; and Austria, Gallicia and Lodo-
iniria. Pari passu, with this, war went on in the south ;
i. e., in what is now the Governments of Kherson and
Ekaterinoslav, but what was then a part of the Ottoman
Empire ; and by the treaty of Kainardzhi, in which these
wars ended, the Tartars of the Crimea, the Kuban (or
the Government of Caucasus), and the Bessarabian fron-
tier, were made wholly independent of the Porte ; that
power having previously had the nomination of their
Khan. The same independence was effected for the

THE MUTILATIONS OF POLAND. 329

Danubian Principalities. Hence, the treaty of Kainardzhi
is to Turkey what that of Nystad was to Sweden.

A. D. 1783, saw the nominal independence of the
Crimea converted into an absolute reduction under
Russia, the last Khan being deposed and pensioned off.
Nine years later the same became the fate of the Tartars
of the Dneister — Kherson becoming Russian even as the
Crimea had done before it. The treaty of Yassi deter-
mined this.

In 1793 and 1795, Poland was again mutilated.

I use the word mutilation rather than partition. Par-
tition implies that the whole of an object is divided
amongst a certain number of shareholders; mutilation,
that a part is cut off; a part that may or may not un-
dergo subsequent separation. Now, up to 1815 Poland
was only mutilated.

In the mutilation of 1793 and 1795, the miserable
puppet Poniatovski still being the king, Suvarov is the
agent of Russia, and Koskiusko the bright name in the
history of the resistance. This is sadly ineffectual ; and
Vilna and Grodno, Minsk, Volhynia, and Podolia, pass
from the possession of Poland to that of Russia. The former
of these empires has now transferred to the latter the
whole of its Lithuanic portion — that, and something more.

With Bessarabia, taken from the Turks in 1821, and
the remains of the Kingdom of Poland, which were finally
absorbed in ]815, the list of the Russian conquests in
Europe draws towards its end. The notice of Finland
will complete it. The folly of the last of the legitimate
kings of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus IV., allowed
Russia a pretext for a war against Sweden, a pretext

330 FINLAND

which was only too sedulously sought for. Denmark
was to make over her fleet to France, and Russia was
to take possession of Finland. So ran a secret article
in the treaty of Tilsit, the effect of it being a muti-
lation of Scandinavia, arranged between Napoleon and
Alexander, just as the mutilation of Poland had been
arranged between Catherine and Frederic. A short
campaign did the work so easily that the charge of ac-
cessibility to Russian bribes has been laid more than
once against the Swedish officers. It is only certain that
the nobles were divided, that they were factious, that
there was a strong Russian party among them, and
that the King (who was afterwards deposed) was unrea-
sonable and impracticable. In the February of 1808,
the first Russian divisions crossed the frontier, and in
September, 1809, was signed the treaty of Frederics-
hamn, by which Finland, along with the Aland Isles,
became Russian. So did a portion of Lapland, a portion
which inconveniently indents the Norwegian territory,
and brings the Russian frontier within a few miles of the
German Ocean.

The present population of Finland is roughly put at
2,000,000. In a paper of Koeppen's, read before the
Academy of St. Petersburg in 1846, the exact numbers

*6

are —

Fins (pure) 1,102,068

Swedes 136,612

Fins and Swedes (mixed) 129,520

Russians and Fins (mixed) 43,752

Germans 363

1,412,315

PANSLAVONISM. 331

The Germans are all in the Province of Viborg; the
Russians and Fins lying north and north-west of the
Lake Ladoga. They are the Karelians of the Greek
Church, and (as such) contrasted with the other popula-
tions, who are all Lutheran Protestants.

The Alanders are wholly Swedish, not Fin.

In Asia the chief conquests lie within the present cen-
tury, the order of annexation being as follows: — 1802,
Georgia and Mingrelia; 1803, Gandzha; 1805, Sheki
and Karabaugh; 1806, Shirvan; 1812, the Talish
country; 1828, Erivan; 1829, Akalzik, and parts of the
Circassian coast.

Such is a sketch of the material progress of Russia,
the details of which belong more properly to the civil
historian than to the ethnologist. There is, however,
another, and a more ideal, point of view which should be
taken. The aggregate phenomena which this view
gives us are conveniently expressed by a word specially
coined for the occasion, and, by this time, tolerably
current — more so, perhaps, on the Continent than here.
This term is Pan-slavonism.

The fundamental fact upon which Pan-slavonism rests,
is the vast extent of area over which the different dialects
of the Slavonic language are spoken, combined with the
small amount of difference they exhibit, even in their
more extreme forms. Let us take it as certain savans
of Bohemia took it, as a point of literary economy, as a
question of international (or, rather, interlingual) copy-
right. Out of the writings of a literary man, Pan-sla-
vonism arose, and it is by the writings of literary men
that it has chiefly been developed. It cannot, however,

332 PANSLAVONISM.

be denied that it has a political aspect as well. This
varies with the country. In Poland, it means absolute
equality between the Pole and Kussian, the two separate
nationalities being merged under the great generality of
Slavonism. In Russia, it means the propagation of the
Greek creed, and the displacement of such languages as
the Turk and Rumanyo by Russian or Servian. In
Servia and Montenegro, it means dislike to all things
Ottoman ; and in Hungary, the denial of the right of
predominance to the Madzhiar minority. It means, in
short, different things in different places. On the
western side of the Slavonic area, it means the non-
recognition of the assumed superiority in literature and
science on the part of the Germans, and the develop-
ment of the Slavonic press, whose domain should be co-
extensive with the language. I see no obstacles to this
in the alleged inferiority of the Slavonic intellect.
Half Germany is more than half Slavonic, if it did but
know it. I see no obstacles in the lateness of the move-
ment. Modern German literature itself is but two
generations old. In the difference between the eastern
and western alphabets, I do see a difficulty.

Literary Pan-slavonism began in Bohemia, where the
Slavonic civilization is the highest, and where the Ger-
man contact is the least satisfactory to the Slavonian ;
Kollar, a Protestant clergyman of Pest, and a Slovak
by birth, being its originator. Its importance, or unim-
portance, may be well measured by the subjoined tables,
which shew two things: —

1. The great area of the Slavonic tongue ; and —

2. The extent to which its political and literary value

PANSLAVONISM.

333

is traversed by the conflicting conditions of nationality
and creed.

(A.)

POLITICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE SLAVONIC STOCK.

RUSSIA.

AUSTRIA.

PRUSSIA.

TURKEY.

CRACOW.

SAXONY.

TOTAL.

Great Russians . .

35,314,000

..

. .

. .

35,314,000

Little Russians..

10,370,000

2,774,000

..

..

..

..

13,144,000

White Russians

2,726,000

..

..

..

..

..

2,726,000

Bulgarians

80,000

7,000

• •

3,500,000

..

..

3,587,000

Servians and )
Bosnians.... )

100,000

2,594,000

••

2,600,000

••

..

5,294,000

..

801,000

. ..

. .

s .

801,000

Carinthians ....

..

1,151,000

..

..

, a

1,151,000

4,912,000

2,341,000

1,982,000

130,000

. ■

9,365,000

• •

4,370,000

44,000

. .

4,414,000

..

2,753,000

• •

..

2,753,000

Upper Sorabians

..

38,000

. a

60,000

98,000

Lower Sorabians

••

••

44,000

"

44,000

53,502,000

16,791,000

2,108,000

6,100,000

130,000

60,000

78,691,000

(B.)
RELIGIOUS DISTRIBUTION OF THE SLAVONIC STOCK.

GREEK
CHURCH.

Great Russians 35,314,000

Little Russians 10,154,000

2,376,000

3,287,000
2,880,000

White Russians

Bulgarians

Servians and Bosnians.

Croatians

Carinthians

Poles

Tshekhs

Slovaks

Upper Sorabians

Lower Sorabians

Total 54,011,000

UNITED

GREEK

CHURCH.

2,990

2,990,000

000

ROMAN
CATHOLIC.

350,000

50,000
1,864,000
801,000
1,138,000
8,923,000
4,270,000
1,953,000
10,000

19,359,000

PROTEST-
ANT.

13,000

442,000

144,000

800,000

88,000

44,000

MAHO-
METAN.

250,000
550,000

1,531,000

800,000

Without either exactly exhibiting the classification
which the present author would adopt, or exactly repre-
senting the numbers and distribution of the Slavonians

334 PANSLAVONISM.

of the present year, these tables give us the data upon
which the idea of Panslavonian chiefly rests. They are from
Schaffarik ; the language being the characteristic, and the
numbers which they supply being those which have been
copied in all (or nearly all) the works which have
treated upon the actual condition, or the future destinies,
of the great Slavonic stock.

NUMBERS OF THE NON-RUSSIAN POPULATIONS
OF RUSSIA IN EUROPE.

I.
UGKIANS.

Samoyeds.
Of Archangel 4,495

Laps.
Of Archangel 2,2S9

Voguls.
Of Perm 872

Tshud.

Of Novogorod 7,067

Olonets 8,550

15,617
Vod.
Of St. Petersburg 5,148

Esthonians.

Of Vitebsk 9,936

Livonia 355,216

Pskov 8,000

St. Petersburg 7,736

Esthonia 252,608

633,496
Lief.

OfKurland 2,052

Livonia (Liefiand) 22

2 074
Aurarnoiset.

Of Novogorod 31

St. Petersburg 29,344

29,375

Savakot.
Of St i Petersburg 42,979

Izhor.
Of St. Petersburg 17,800

Karelians.

Of Archangel 11,228

Novogorod 27,076

Olonets 43,810

St. Petersburg 3,660

Tambov ?

Tver 84,638

Yaroslav 1,283

171,695

Ziranians.

Of Archangel 6,958

Vologda 64,007

70,965

Permians.

OfViatka 4,599

Perm 47,605

52,204

Votiahs.

OfViatka 181,270

Kazan 5,500

Orenburg ?

Samar 1

186,770
Besermanians.
Of Viatka 4,545

336 NUMBERS OF THE NON-RUSSIAN POPULATIONS

Tsheremis.

OfViatka 75,450

Kazan 71,375

Kostroma 3,357

Nizhnigoi-od 4,330

Orenburg 2,626

Perm 7,933

Mordvins.
Of Astrakhan

165,076

48

Kazan 14,867

Nizhnigorod 53,382

Orenburg 5,200

Penza 106,025

Samar 74,910

Saratov 78,010

Simbirsk 98,968

Tauris 340

Tambov 48,491

480,241

Tslmvash.

OfViatka 17

Kazan 300,091

Orenburg' 8,352

Samar 29,926

Saratov 6,S52

Simbirsk 84,714

429,952

II.

TURKS*

Tartars (so called by the Russians).

Of Astrakhan 21,092

Vilna 1,874

Tiatka 57,944

Grodno 849

Don Kosaks 629

*This includes the Nogays.

Kazan 308,574

Kovno 415

Kostroma 262

Minsk 2,120

Nizhnigorod 22,788

Orenburg 230,080

Penza 34,684

Perm 17,271

Podolia 46

Riazan 4,725

Samar 83,927

Saratov 46,713

Simbirsk 67,730

Stauropol 96,037

Tauris 275,822

Tambov 10,640

Esthonia 12

1,284,234
Karakalpaks.

Of Astrakhan 60

Orenberg 1

Perm ?

60
TrukJimen {Turcomans').

Of Astrakhan 1,600

Stauropol 5,271

Tauris 450

7,321
Khivans.

Of Astrakhan 190

Saratov 25

215

Bashkirs.

OfViatka 3,617

Orenburg 332,358

Perm 40,746

Samar 15,351

392,072

OF RUSSIA IN EUROPE.

337

Meshtsheriabs.

Of Orenburg 71,578

Penza 1

Perm 5,783

Saratov 2,5S0

Kirgiz.

Of Astrakhan.

79,941
82,000

III.
SARMATIANS.

(UTHUANIO BRANCH.)

Lithuanians.

OfVilna 138,320

Grodno 2,33S

Kovno 568,794

Kurland 7,434

716,886

Lets.

Of Vitebsk 142,497

Kovno 6,341

Kurland 401,939

Livonia 318,872

Pskov 458

St. Petersburg 2,000

872,107
SARMATIANS.

(SLAVONIC BRANCH.)

Bulgarians.

Of Bessarabia 64,736

Tauris 1,234

Kherson 11,132

77,102

Servians,

Of Bessarabia 89

Ekaterinoslav 858

Kherson 436

1,383

Poles.

Of Astrakhan , ?

Bessarabia 733

Volhynia 150,000

Grodno 82,689

Ekaterinoslav 8,000

Kiev 100,000

Kovno 1

Kurland 12,888

Livonia 3,213

Minsk 1

Mohilev ?

Orenburg ?

Podolia 100,000

St. Petersburg 19,149

Saratov...
Stauropol .
Kherson
Esthonia ,

J

850
13

477,535

IV.

RUMANTOS.

(WALLACHIANS AND MOLDAVIANS.)

Of Bessarabia 406,182

Ekaterinoslav 9,858

Podolia 7,429

Kherson 75,000

498.469

338 NUMBERS OF THE NON-RUSSIAN POPULATIONS

V.

MONGOLS.

KALMUKS.

Of Astrakhan 87,656

Don Kosaks 20,591

Orenburg ?

Samar 1

Saratov 692

Stauropol 10,223

119,162

VI.

GREEKS.

Of Astrakhan 20

Bessarabia 3,353

Ekaterinoslav 32,633

Podolia 50

Tauris 5,426

Kherson 3,500

Tshernigov 1,791

46,773

VII.

ARMENIANS.

Of Astrakhan 5,272

Bessarabia 2,353

Ekaterinoslav 14,931

St. Petersburg 170

Stauropol 9,000

Tauris 3,960

Kherson 1,990

37,676

VIII.

GERMANS.

Germans Proper (Deutsche).

Of Archangel 450

Astrakhan 250

Bessarabia 10,200

Vilna 765

Vitebsk 1,300

Vladimir 100

Vologda 100

Volhynia 4,000

Voronezh 1,900

Viatka 120

Grodno 5,355

Don Kosaks 11

Ekaterinoslav 13,232

Kazan 550

Kaluga 132

Kiev 1,200

Kovno 1

Kostroma 50

Kurland 38,593

Kursk 400

Livonia 51,340

Minsk 330

Mohilev 200

Moskow 8,000

Nizhnigorod 204

Novogorod 1,100

Olonets 120

Orenburg 1,034

Orlov 200

Penza 250

Perm 300

Podolia 1,126

Poltava 800

Pskov 557

Riazan 227

Samar 46,900

St. Petersburg 50,800

Saratov 62,500

OF RUSSIA IN EUROPE.

339

Of Simbirsk 158

Smolensk 229

Stauropol 1,036

Tauris 22,324

Tambov 227

Tver 200

Tula 180

Kharkhov 650

Kherson 31,700

Tshernigov 1,500

Estbonia 10,000

Yaroslav 100

373,000
Swedes.

OfKurland 7

Livonia 425

St. Petersburg 6,156

Kherson 168

Esthonia 4,714

11,470

IX.

DIOSCURIANS.

Georgians.

Of Astrakhan 290

Stauropol 710

1,000

Ir6n (Ostt).
Of Stauropol 1,650

Circassians.

OfDonKosaks 130

Samar ?

Simbirsk 45?

175

X.

PERSIANS.

Kuzzilbash.

Of Astrakhan 460

Samar 186

646

Saris (Bolcharians).

Of Astrakhan 1

Orenburg ?

XL

INDIANS.
Of Astrakhan 10

XII.

ALBANIANS.

(arnaut, skipitar.)

Of Bessarabia 1,328

XIII.
FRENCH.
Of Bessarabia

250

XIV.
JEWS.

Talmudic.

Of Bessarabia 42,380

Vilna 69,397

Vitebsk 47,649

Volhynia 195,030

Viatka 58

340

THE NON-RUSSIAN POPULATIONS, ETC.

Of Grodno 99,592

Ekaterinoslav 6,139

Kiev 103,326

Kovno 82,664

Kurland 23,486

Livonia 532

Minsk 88,880

Mohilev 83,715

Podolia 150,485

Poltava 16,140

Tauris 4,110

Kherson 22,424

Tshernigov 18,400

1,054,407

Kara it.

OfVilna 424

Volhynia 320

Kovno 337

Tauris 4,198

Kherson 446

5,725

XV.

TSIGANI.

(gipsies).

Of Archangel

25

Bessarabia 18,73S

Yilna 107

Vitebsk 607

Vladimir 130

Vologda 160

Volhynia 143

Voronezh «... 2,586

Viatka 338

Grodno 83

OfDonKosaks 408

Ekaterinoslav 425

Kazan 188

Kaluga 659

Kiev 880

Kovno 169

Kostroma 264

Kurland 60

Kursk 1,200

Livonia 6

Minsk 257

Mohilev 424

Moskow 1,200

Nizhgorod 369

Novogorod .
Olonets ....

Orenburg

344
142
85
510
120
265
464

Orlov

Penza

Perm

Podolia

Poltava 775

Pskov 369

Eiazan 595

Samar 511

St. Petersburg 254

Saratov 385

Simbirsk 171

Smolensk 808

Stauropol 42

Tauris 7,726

Tambov 147

Tver 160

Tula 315

Karkhov 1,166

Kherson 2,516

Tshernigov 458

Yaroslav 493

43,245

l'rinted by W. H. Cos, 5, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.

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